Welcome To The Working Week
by Spawn Guy
Summary: A madman loose in Acmetropolis. The usual Friday night right? Blue hedgehog? Not so much.
1. Hey, This City's All Right

**Welcome To The Working Week**

I know. I didn't think I'd like Loonatics Unleashed either. Well, not not like, just not care. But Warner Brothers surprised me. As did Sega with that mascot of theirs. Amazing what TV can do.

Ha, see how I have totally skipped around the standard disclaimer? I haven't even mentioned the word!

Damn.

---

Unsettling light gleamed off deep blue quills.

"Ow…"

_Note to self; Chaos emeralds suck. Really truly suck._

No wet feeling under hand, so hopefully no bleeding, but it would be hard to tell with gloves wouldn't it? Then again, Sonic the Hedgehog found himself in situations where bleeding cocktails of adrenaline rushes were pretty standard. Hail the conquering hero. Stupid Robotnik…

Sounds. Gentle boot scrapes on metal floor. Light, even low as a dying lamp, stung a tad too much for grass green eyes, so he kept his blue lids closed. Probably best after the mini sun he'd gone through. With both eyes. A pause crawled into his ear, scraping tired nerves.

Might as well…super fast feet weren't going anywhere.

"Okay…I'm gonna open my eyes. If I open my eyes am I going to regret it?"

"That depends doc."

_Brooklyn twang_, the hedgehog noted. _Wise guy. And probably not afraid to show it. I like him already. _

"I, uh, know yer half outta it down there, but how are ya feeling about getting some pants on? We got a lady present."

A thud of elbow off ribcage, muffled by material and expelled breath through teeth.

"Watch it fearless leader."

Spaghetti thin drooping muscles managed a smirk. They got together and tried at an eye lid. The light stung but no where near as much as whatever had been up with that chaos control. Surrounding billowing smoke helped.

"Huh."

Shadow black splashed with random rainbow colours. No two the same, save the two rabbits. Yellow and pink, yellow for the male strangely enough. Bruise purple on a mass of muscle (Sonic couldn't distinguish what species, and not just because of the bad lighting his brain was receiving) towering over the too bright orange bird in front, sharp angular beak agape. Pale mint green on a wire thin frame, night vision lens like eyes intently fixed on the hedgehog down a long canine snout. Halloween was truly an inter species thing.

Weak shoulders shrugged.

"Seen weirder."

---

"So…ideas?"

Sparks dancing over head, Knuckles the Echidna shielded long red furred dreadlocks as he duct under twisted metal. Metal soled boots crunched over earth fussed into dessert hot glass. He tapped the frozen figure in front of the mass of red hot flame and redder, hotter metal

"Tails, don't freak out on me here."

A haughty sniff behind them.

"You have no idea how to talk to kids guardian."

Violet eyes narrowed. "Like you'd know."

He didn't bother turning around. Shadow was probably gazing off uninterested into the distance already, trying to convey to the miles of sand, rock and dust that had once been a three mile part of forest that he was _The Ultimate Life form_. Right now the guardian echidna had bigger things to worry about, possibly even bigger than the hedgehog's ego.

"Tails. Look at me so I don't feel stupider around you than I normally do, please."

Prower stirred.

"Knuckles…I…"

A shovel blade sized hand rested on a young shoulder.

"Easy kid. Get a grip."

The fox boy turned blue eyes to the guardian, threatening to become ocean blue under wobbling tears.

"It…it was only a test…I didn't…did I…?"

"Hey, no. No…"

Although Knuckles had to admit, taking in the mass of disfigured mush that had once been an efficient upright blade of technology, it didn't look that good.

_Sonic goes in, this thing goes up. And me and creepy the ultimate ego mass are the only ones left with the kid. Why do these things always happen to me? _

Tails' lower lip was quivering like snow in an avalanche. "It was only meant to be an energy converter."

With a chaos emerald as a power source. Safety features might as well be a chair propped against an unhinged door when taking into account the sheer limitlessness power of whatever kept those things going. And even without one of the most unpredictable things on the planet acting as a battery, using the fastest thing alive, mouth included, was an extra recipe for disaster ala mode.

"An energy converter…okay. Why did Sonic have to take part again?" 

A shuddering breath, and inventor turned back to burning creation. The occasional sniffle drooled in among his words.

"The emerald was unstable…way unstable…but if I could get it to work…well the power could keep the entire nation running for a millennium, theoretically…but I needed to know what kind of energy would be the best way to go. I didn't want a direct tap, that would over load everything…so I thought I'd start small…"

Knuckles eyes asked the question for him. Hooking one of the few organic things that could survive breaking the sound barrier up to a treadmill was small?

"He…we…I…I thought it'd be best to go the old fashioned way…kinetic energy…Sonic runs, the generator turns the output into chaos energy by passing it through the filters…but…but it got too big…"

Another gulp.

"The emerald…amplified it…too fast…I think…I think we initiated chaos control…"

The drama from a few moments ago played out in the echidna's head. The flash of sunlight off the polished metal of charging robots. The sound of jet thrusters and pounding shot guns. The almost unnoticeable, hollow sound as a lucky bullet made one of the almost indistinguishable heaps of technology clustered around the device stand out from the rest, smoke and sparks beginning a mad tango around failing mechanisms. The all too familiar whine of a revolving emerald, energy crackling under every note. The look on the hedgehog's face as he was there one second. And then not the next. Vanished in the space between heartbeats and leaving a frantic Knuckles to pull the kid away from tiger growling machinery and hurtle past Shadow ( who had appeared from nowhere amidst the sound of breaking metal and gunfire) into the presumable safety of the woods. The calculating look on the hedgehog's face as he turned, body firm against the headache throbbing light, arms flexing with the thundering conversion of a Chaos Blast.

Even as the golden shield of Shadow's power sped surging forward to carry the hellfire red of the blast, Knuckles thanked whatever ancient gods that his people had worshipped, and weren't sealed away in the Master Emerald, that his instincts had screamed like molten lava into his leg muscles, forcing him into a straight jump and glide with Tails clinging as if magnetised to his back. The tree they had initially sheltered behind, or rather it's atoms, were probably what had crunched under his foot as had landed, tripping and rolling as a final heat wave smelling of copper had swept them up in billowing arms and flung them in a straight line towards what was left of the dense bushes some yards away.

"Well…at least you didn't use the Master Emerald."

Tail's looked like he was about to simultaneously dehydrate and asphyxiate. Another haughty sniff. Knuckles tried to force the same kind of effort that was keeping him from finding a volcano and introducing the hedgehog to it head first into his facial muscles, a reassuring look as brittle as ancient cathedral glass

"Hey, it's Sonic."

"Uh, excuse me?"

Instincts kicked in, the guardian's body suddenly between the world and the fox boy, namesake in a defensive stance so solid a hurricane would have had to go around him.

"Yeah, hi, I'm uh…stuck here, could you give me a hand, only if you can afford to, I don't want to put you to any trouble, although it may be difficult getting me out of here, but probably not a difficult as me digging myself out, which come to think of it I can't do, not that I have any broken bones or anything, although my neck is incredibly stiff, its just too heavy, so could you help a guy out?

The echidna stared at the fox, glanced over a shoulder at the hedgehog, who's red eyes were pinned to the origon of the sound like a dart to a board. A hand was extended. Knuckles tried not to shudder as it was gripped.

The…bird that emerged gave himself a shake, cracking a katana smooth neck to the side. Sparks flashed briefly off streamlined feathers before fading against the black of whatever material the body suit he was wearing.

"Ooooooh, man, is it good to be out from under there, boy oh boy I thought I'd never see daylight again, although maybe that's a little over dramatic since I was only under there for about five minutes, at least I think it might have been five minutes, I couldn't really tell, I may have a concussion, which may have impaired my time telling ability, in which case I should probably lie down, although if I do I'll probably start blacking out, but not if someone talks to me, oh where are my manners, man my mother would be ashamed, I'm usually better at making a first impression than this, hi I'm Rev Runner, and you are?"

Knuckles looked around the entire scene. Smoke, fire, robots, stuck up hedgehogs and now something that talked more than Amy Rose on a bender.

"Of course this would have to happen on a Friday."

---

"An energy converter?"

Impressed eye brows raised, Tech E. Coyote kept an equal amount of focus on subject and scanner.

"That was the idea."

The hedgehog's voice reverberated from inside the tank, pale green glow sliding up and down his body, soothing as ocean waves. The local genius made a note to hurry. From personal experience, too long under the med scanner analysis ray and you'd need to get checked out for bladder problems.

"Of course, go figure, half way through Robotnik decides to gatecrash and next thing I know I'm shoved into the next plain of reality or whatever this place is."

"Robotnik. You mentioned him before."

Green eyes wandered off the scanner enough to take in twisted metal on a near by work bench.

"Yeah, old Ivo. Imagine an egg. Imagine that egg walking and not shaving for a week and that's about what you get."

Screens danced with data, everything from quills to cellular structure live and outlined in infra red and ultra violet.

_Tendon strenght…skeletal build…almost every vital organ but the stomach is small, but reinforced. Meaning it can stand operating way faster than your average Olympic hopeful. And about the same pressure as an armoured sub. If I'm reading this right _(and he was) _the acid breaks down and converts nutritional energy into kinetic energy…a lot of kinetic energy…_

No doubt about it. Build, metabolism…even the organs had that streamlined smoothness to avoid liquefy past anything faster than a speeding laser beam.

They had traded one speedster for another.

---

"He's cute." Lexi declared.

Duck snorted, not an easy sound to make with a beak. Not pleasant either.

"He's a rat."

"Hedgehog." The rabbit's glare was more powerful than laser vision.

"Same difference."

"You got a problem with hedgehogs?"

Duck unfolded his arms, leaning back upright from the wall he'd been lounging against.

"No, but I know vermin. Bad childhood memories." A shudder. "He's gonna have a sense of humour. I know it."

"I like a sense of humour."

"Then how come you never laugh at any of my jokes?"

"Do you really need an answer Mr Bucket Of Water Over The Door?"

"In my defence the old ones are the best."

Lexi's face may as well have belonged to a panther. Even Slam, pizza sauce smeared across purple mouthpiece, paused. Duck look around for support, found none and did what all birds are good at.

"Uh…gotta go. Early migrating season."

No tactical retreat ever looked as good as a Quantum Quack. Ace smiled, head shacking before swallowing a slice that he'd tactfully retrieved at the risk of becoming one handed in the face of Slam's usual full on assault. Their impromptu guest was mulled over between bites. Despite the possibility he may be part of a Mastermind plot (hey, the broad had come up with crazy stuff, a robotic assassin disguised as a hedgehog wasn't impossible) he had to admit he liked the guy. Even with his head one step away from a total one eighty and probably going to be lucky to have _just_ a concussion, he'd taken in the situation first and asked questions once the room stopped spinning. And not just the easy one's like "Where am I?" or "Who are you?", but stuff like "Did I hurt anyone crashing out of the sky like a meteor out of a sci-fi movie?" and "Nice place. Rent or own?" Also while not exactly having a martial artist's build the guy clearly knew how to take care of his assets, possessing a stream lined form similar to Rev's but with the work put into it showing. Stuntmen/ Martial artists/ Superhero team leaders liked that in a person as one pro to another and while Rev hit the gym a good solid two hours a day a little less junk food wouldn't kill him. Plus you had to hand it to a guy who could pull off that much blue and the retro Nude-Anthromorph look. "Sonic" seemed to have taken to the whole stranded in an alternate reality thing rather well, hence the suspicion on the rabbit's part. Still, how many robotic assassins crash landed in front of targets? Or asked for chilidogs?

_Guy knows what he likes. _

A near by dog pocking out of the wrappers near by (Tech had deduced from the hedgehogs gazed condition that he was low on protein and water so they'd brought in bulk) was surreptitiously pulled out.

Slam grunted (_Crud._) and a pink gloved hand slammed down on top of a yellow one (_Double crud!_).

"That's for Sonic."

An innocent grin.

"Wouldn't give me grief if he'd ordered carrots."

"Yeah, but he didn't. He ordered chilli dogs. Because of his condition"

"Somehow I ain't seeing the benefit to his health. These thing's calories probably have weight problems."

"So how come your sneaking one?"

Sly grin. Stakes were being raised. Ace played a hand.

"C'mon, Tech's taking care of him. What's the worst that could happen?"

The explosion rattled chilli dogs, pizza, fries and soda to the floor. Ace counted to ten, thought about it a little, counted to twelve, and shuffled towards the infirmary. Smoke wondered idly out of the sealed doors and down the halls as if on a casual stroll, which given the nature of anything in Tech's hands was something you learned to live with. Still, caution had its benefits, as the Guardian Strike Sword had often pointed out. Said point was aimed straight ahead, slid between the doors like a good cocktail going down a throat. A glance at Lexi. She shook her head, fully erect ears remaining steel beam still.

"Not picking anything up. Too much echoing to pick up heart beats."

Nevertheless she kept her senses skyscraper high as Ace strained.

A twist, a scrape, a whistle of air seeping through metal, several coughs. Darkness. Light and the familiar whoosh of dimensions to let Duck through.

"Whahoppin?"

Radar bounced right and left, searching the room in front. Running water, burning metal, collapsing equipment. Excited breathing that didn't sound like anyone Lexi knew. Slam eclipsed the hallway light outside for a few seconds, pushing the doors wider. More light spilled into the room…revealing a wide eyed shell-shocked hedgehog sitting atop what was left of the medical scanner, monitors sparking around him, staring down at a pile of green ashes.

"Um…"

The eyes looked at the rest of the Loonatics without really looking. Ace tucked the Strike Sword away.

"Ah don't worry about it."

A flash of green, a stomach turning sight of the pile rebuilding itself, thankfully excluding any organs. Tech shook his snout, green sparks vanishing off in a short waterfall. He cracked his neck, giving the hedgehog a reassuring look.

"Part of my powers. Happens every couple of days, and that's in the lab alone."

"Oh."

The hedgehog blinked some more.

"There anymore soda left?"

---

A slurp echoed through the glade. Rev smacked his beak.

"Man, did that hit the spot, thanks a lot, I thought I was gonna pass out…"

"Probably would have saved us all a migraine." Shadow muttered.

"Save it." Knuckles cracked open another water bottle, a deep chug sloshing down his throat like a waterfall down a sand dune. Severally needed, although more for mentality than anything physical. He'd been no where near as dry as the gasping bird had been minutes ago, eventually forcing the echidna to sling him over his shoulder and carry him in a mad sprint to Tail's lab. Shadow probably could have done the job faster, but other than studying the guy out of some sort of self indulgent curiosity he really didn't seem to be interested in helping out anymore. Which suited Knuckles. Team Sonic, as the media insisted on calling the time he spent trying to help Sonic and Tails in an attempt to avoid having the planet blow up, had accomplished a lot before anyone had even heard of Project Shadow or the Black Arms in fifty years. Although at the rate Rev talked, if not just the speed, it might take them a while, but what else was new?

He had to admit to being shaken though. The high speed style Rev communicated in indicated he wasn't the sort to suffer heat stroke or instant dehydration or whatever had happened, but the attack had been sudden. Some (a lot of) food and (even more) water

later seemed to have done the trick though and the guy now sounded stuck back on fast forward, assuming that was normal. Experience loved cynicism, and Knuckles doubted the cosmos was going to be kind enough to just once let something weird like that sudden fit be perfectly innocent. Eyes ran Rev over for the umpteenth time in an umpteenth second, hand tipping the bottle back for another swig. Cloud bank had cracked in half as slow as ordering a laptop in Chinese for the better half of the afternoon (And the echidna had a bad feeling about that as well. Always calmest before the storm and someone who lived in the wilderness most of their life made a habit of trusting the weatherman's subject rather than his words.), sunlight slashing through fur and boiling sweat out of skin. Indoors had been oven worthy ever since Sonic rode the head of a skateboard into the AC system, and if the group was going to flash fry at snail speed they might as well do it in the fresh air. That and the TV exploding under Rev's finger tips.

Tail's scientific curiosity and youthful enthusiasm dictated Rev be placed under every kind of scanner known to man. Shadow and Knuckle's common scenes and natural cynicism suggested they postpone putting the Road Runner under anything else mechanical. Metal, glass or wood; shrapnel with momentum could sheer air in half.

Nature having cheated (in Knuckle's opinion) and provided the fox with an inbuilt backside fan, the rest stir fried for the most part in silence while the lab was put back together. Although if Shadow felt anything from the heat it didn't show, and Rev brain seemed to operate at a high enough speed to avoid burning out so far.

"Man I am really, really, really, really, really sorry about the TV, I had no idea it was going to do that, although I'm not sure if that's how TV's are supposed to work in this dimension, in which case could you warn a guy next time, almost had the fright of my life, and I've seen some scary stuff, like the Bio-Tech Parasite, wonder where that went…"

"Muhuh?" Knuckles had been half asleep.

"Start over." Shadow hadn't.

"Ah it's nothing important…"

"All done!" Tail's voice called like the narrative plot device of a god "You can come back in!"

"Oh happy, happy, happy." Knuckles half muttered, half chewed.

"It's just heat."

"A lot of heat. But you'd know all about hot air wouldn't you?"

Needlessly aggressive, but they'd been playing this game for the better half of a day, and the echidna _did not _like guns. Hand or blade may be just as cold, but they said someone actually cared enough about your death to do it to your face. Shadow remained outside, came in last, and slammed the door shut. Knuckle's expected this was to annoy him. But the hedgehog wasn't focusing on him. Blinking away purple ghosts from the sudden darkness, Knuckles took in the Road Runner as well.

"For someone who prides himself on lack of social grace, you seem pretty interested in this guy."

Shadow's didn't even blink, a new note to add to the long line of creepy things about the guy. His voice was a wind quiet whisper when he spoke.

"Can you see that slight residue? Like liquid light."

Knuckles dove inward, reaching out to the Master Emerald miles away and above on Angel Island, tuning into the bond between emerald and guardian, pushing it out and over the road runner, searching.

The images hit him like a iron forged tidal wave.

"Whoa…"

"What, do I have something on my face, hope it isn't a bee, I hate bees, not that I don't think their cool, some of my best friends would be bees if they could talk, which they can't, or maybe they can and just don't, sounds kinda rude, maybe that's why that one stung me when I was five, hey did you know bees can't see the colour red, so if they don't react to you it might not be because their rude but because they just can't see you, although they may be just ignoring you, in which case that'd be really rude…"

Light hidden on the border of consciousness stabbed into the forebrain, jostling the bond, making maintaining the link like trying to stare into the sun, the mind squinting like an eye lid, wanting to shut. Not chaos energy, although that was in there as well. And the road runner was covered in it.

Knuckles broke contact before he microwaved his brain, noting that Shadow had apparently been picking that energy signature up the entire time or just now figured out what it was.

Just how much did they keep having not to know about this guy?

"Uh, Rev…when whatever happened happened…"

He frowned at a distant sound. Shadow's ears perked up like a sudden knife through someone's back. A thud echoed from outside. Tail's open the door, peering out into the sun lit world outside on his front yard. He was almost blinded by the glare from a battalion of shiny egg robots.

///_Priority hedgehog is not available. Primary Master signal is…unaccounted for. Beta squad location unknown. Assumed terminated. Multiple targets available. Guardian Echidna, Primary Fox, Secondary Hedgehog, also known as Ultimate Life Form identified. Additional singularity also present/// _

Electronics whirred and gleamed at each gaze.

_///Scanning. No matches found. Singularity remains unidentified. Assumed non threat. Precaution advised. Initiating primary termination programming/// _

Gun barrel arms clicked.

_///Targets acquired./// _

"Secondary hedgehog?" Black arms unfolded. "Charming."

---

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say he was here."

Twisted flame danced against the liquid black shine of Duck's uniform as he stood among the wreckage and too bright light.

"Ya might be right there." Although it didn't take much, Ace had to admit. Crushed cars, smashed walls, mangled fires waltzing with smoke and settled dust, most of the major planetary threats locked up or at least far enough out there not to do anything immediate; setting up the scanners and taking witness accounts was barely worth Duck's time, let alone a productive mind like Tech's. This wasn't a forensic scene, it was damage control.

They were pretty much here as a technicality. Damage control. He hated damage control. Actually what he hated was responding to Zadavia's calls too late. No way to technically track down the freak of the week except wait for Tech's muse to start humming and do the fire departments job. And it wasn't even their freak.

Ambulance doors sealed shut in a synchronized hiss of smooth running technology, sirens wailing like a flock of mourning birds, and Tech, scanners and all, trudged back as the last of the rescue units set off.

"Well we know their honest in that other dimension. Just finished talking to an old woman who's description matches twenty other witnesses accounts. Giant robots and a fat weirdo with a bad hair day on his lower lip."

"Sounds like Sonic's guy alright."

Ace kinda whished he'd taken the guy up on his offer to help out, but after the event in the medical lab he'd figured if the guy did need anything to do it was getting a tour around Acmetropolis that didn't involve high explosives. A Battle Ball game hadn't sounded like what either of them had had in mind, but Lexi had insisted ( none of the guys were sure how to feel about that, although Duck had dropped some distaining comments on inter species dating that were about as subtle as a rock to the head and were probably going to result in a painful couple of weeks until the medical lab was rebuilt) and Slam had had nothing to do (neither had Duck but that beak loved nothing more than being on the evening news) and had played chaperone at Ace's request, much to Lexi's annoyance.

He played out the afternoon's events in his head, even though it felt like longer now.

Mastermind had somehow got those warped hobgoblin hands on leftovers of the battle with the Bio-Tech Parasite. Rev had taken that personally, even though Rip had confirmed he was okay amid numerous phone calls. After the usual robot death-trap fight they'd found good old Mallory using Acmetropolis power plant to power some kind of portal device, something about a quick ticket to "launch". Rev had darted forward mid battle…and then they'd found Sonic in the remains after the dust settled. That had been hours after they'd dug they're way through in search of the Road Runner. Plenty of time for a disorientated mad genius to slip pas them, even though Mastermind had been chained up and ready for transfer to the usual cell underground.

"If it _is_ him, he'll probably be either thinking planetary takeover or just figuring out the quickest ride home."

Tech's eyes said he was thinking what his leader was thinking, the nod confirmed it.

"Mastermind's portal."

"Right. So we gotta find out what he's up to in case we can get Sonic a free ride home too. But first we've got to solve the little mystery of where he's going."

Duck yawed, stretched from leaning against what had been a wall.

"So the sooner we solve it, the sooner short, blue and spiky gets lost. _I'm _motivated."

"And we get Rev back."

Ace's arms were folded, face determined.

"Okay Tech, dazzle me. Whaddaya got?"

"It's a tourist spot. Best guess, he was looking for quick info. Start with where he is and he can work his way up, which is why I'm willing to bet he jacked into any available computers and did a major google on the city."

Ace took in a crack in the cement which might be the aftermath of stamping metal, various others leading away from the heart of downtown. Away from downtown, and most of the financial and industrial centres. Pretty big side step given a need for resources this Robotnik would need.

"Any idea what he was looking for?"

"Something roughly a couple of hundred miles away, where we just finished a recent exchange with."

Orange bill flipped from one to the other. Duck tapped an annoyed webbed foot.

"Did I quack out and miss something or what?"

Tech tapped him on the shoulder.

"Duck, we're superheroes. There's a super villain from another dimension running loose. The scanners show he was thrown in this direction mid teleport. We've been to the one place he probably ended up more times than we would ever want to count. And above all…"

The coyote's eyes were as hard as rifle scopes.

"It's Friday night. The one day where everything that has no right to go wrong will go wrong. Where do you _think_ he ended up?"


	2. Thrill You

Something I should have mentioned earlier. The Sonic side of this story is technically an AU, so don't be surprised if a few names get dropped where they wouldn't. History has also played out a little diffrently, you'll probably be able to guess where. It's more to give Sonic a superhero worthy rouges gallery as well as some major back up for what's coming, so don't panic if you end up confused at some point. I'm not going to go into it in too much detail, other than to say that while the Archie Freedom Fighters will show up this Sonic has a fond history but not total membership. More of a part time thing to his universes JLA. Time and Space is a big place, there's got to be at least one continuety where all Sonic story lines have come together at some point. The Loonatics have the advantage of having two solid cannon seasons to host this in, some time in the middle of season two. So no whineing about nothing making sense. It's called taking liberty, not Doing Whatever The Hell I Want. Well, it _is_, but I've got the fancy name to hide behind.

---

Mallory Casey peered through the reinforced glass of her cell, whip thin eye brow raised in a gesture of curiosity and mild amusement, not something that occurred often in Acmetropolis' underground prison. Then again it _was_ a Friday.

A still firing guard slammed against the glass, the occupant not even blinking at the sound of breaking bone squeezing through muscle and armour. A connoisseur's gaze travelled over the array of robots, some big, some small, tramping in simple metallic unison over guard station rubble.

Not Acme tech, but still advanced in a sticks and stones kind of way. Some stood in gleaming thin, silver alien grace, LCD cameras embedded in stylised heads feeding data along multitudes of wires running from reed thin necks to machine gun arms. Other's tramped and waddled on stalks bolted to upside down egg shell feet beneath orange chassis, moustachioed domes revolving in search of targets or more punching bags. Probably the same thing.

"Very nice."

"Thank you. A little art deco meets the age of the cell phone, but I try."

Overhead underground shadows peeled away to reveal an egg cupped shaped pod. Any trained Acme University lab technician could have picked up the tell tale hum of anti grav generators trundling away from within, and after half a minute with the monkey pounding of the subterranean security system generators the sound of something sophisticated, if alien, was a symphony. The pod's occupant rose, regal steps taking him down the flight ramp that unfolded in a simplistic ballet of metal and electronics. White gloved hands tugged at red lapels, then flew to the minuscule dark glasses seemingly embedded in the curves of the otherwise perfectly oval skull.

"Do I have the honour of addressing…"

He checked the small blue cerulean type of an electronic blue holographic list.

"…miss Mallory Casey?"

She stood up, arms crossed, legs apart, head high (not that it took much), a vision of self confidence even if metallic prosthetic armour was concealed beneath an absolutely _tasteless _standard issue jumpsuit.

"I prefer…"

(Pause for dramatic effect, a must for a super villain introduction. Hold it, hold it…)

"…Mastermind."

"Ah."

Another check. A smile, the only thin thing on the man, curved beneath the bushy devil red moustache riding his lower lip like a tidal wave seconds from knocking a hapless surfer to the sharks.

"Yes, yes. Fitting."

A tap, and the hologram morphed. She vaguely recognised battle footage from her debut invading Loonatics headquarters. Her butt still looked unflatteringly large even reversed and miniaturised. A green flash could only be that damn dog's powers and her lip curled at the sight. Her eyes darted back to the stranger at the sound of a sympathetic sigh.

"Such well crafted work and simply no appreciation from the most unsubtle of opponents. I can relate, believe me."

She rolled too big eyes.

"Why don't you just make your pitch. I appreciate some stimulating conversation, but on Friday night I honestly don't have the patience to play these games."

Perhaps something flickered beneath those dark glasses. Perhaps not. Apart from a twist of his moustache the man did nothing. But the damp and metallic smelling air of the prison was tense for just too short to not be noticed. Breech of etiquette did not concern most super villains, least of all one who had excelled at hyper astro physics at eighteen so this was ignored, eyebrows almost pushed all the way to the back of her skull as she waited for a response.

"Very to the point."

The heels of black booted feet click clacked off the stone floor as the man dismounted the hover craft, footsteps echoing over the multiple whines of robots falling into rank and file formation on his right and left.

"Dr Ivo Robotnik. A pleasure."

---

"So what do these guys do again?"

Green eyes traced the ark of the…puck he guessed. He couldn't make it out from down here. Make. Out. Something he should _not_ be thinking about right now. Beside him, Lexi ( "Call me Lex. Go on, you totally can.") pushed her braid off her shoulder, the green tails coiling into the natural curve of her back. She grinned, a smile that put toothpaste models out of work.

"Again? This is the about the fourth time you've asked."

Sonic shrugged, brining soda and chilli dog to near eye level in each hand.

"I'm learning as I go."

Not that adjusting to a surprising evolution of the stagnation of culture wasn't hard enough and being sheltered by a group of super powered anthromorph with enough generosity to spare (even the jerk ass duck) wasn't a help, but understanding the "Tasmanian Devil" was a job for Super Linguist.

The hedgehog had, as far as he could recall, flunked into the Emperor Hedgehog latent super speed abilities although Uncle Chuck and his parents hadn't. Tails had turned a possible evolutionary fluke into an advantage. Knuckles, Rouge, Mighty and the Chaotix had trained for their skills. Shadow was _designed_ for what he did and Amy was a testament to what too much adrenaline could do. So for him this counted as his first Super hero team up. Comic books flashed in and out of the nomad lifestyle along with every other great work of literature, but while he'd encountered wizards, gods, mad geniuses, telekinetics, psychokinetics, pyrokinetics, and robots, God bless the little clanky gears in those robots, he'd never actually met another animal who actually dressed like a superhero. Everyone else he knew back home was just as normal person as they could really be with two tails or an anal big jewel guarding disorder. And the Loonatics ( he hadn't asked ) were _normal_, as normal as overnight celebrities before the golden years starting to set up. Penthouse apartment in a metal ball hovering in the middle of an art deco nightmare of a tower, yet it was a business office with a personality. They'd save the world…but only after that first cup of morning coffee and a decent read of their respective sections of the paper.

You couldn't deny what they were…but pointing it out made about as much sense as pointing out he was blue back home. That's just the way things went. Save the world and after that back to being adult edition college roomies. He….liked that.

"You listening?"

"No. I got bash."

That grin again.

"Two guys get in different colour hamster balls, and have to dodge the other guys from each team bashing the crap out of them."

"Was that so hard?"

"Cave man."

"Hog."

"That to."

He grinned this time.

---

Shadow gave the last robot's head a glare for the road, before dropping it and crushing it beneath a sneakered heel. Knuckles puffed out his cheeks for a few seconds, deflating after the quick scan of the second amount of robo wreckage that afternoon.

"Not going to speak for anyone else, but that was kinda a highlight for a hot sunny day. Rev?"

The Road Runner flashed back and forth through the air, black and red over one pile of wreckage, red and black over another kind of wreckage. The echidna wondered if the only other speedster in the area, possibly the only one native to this dimension as of now, experienced the high speed fidgeting in real time, but if Shadow could track and discern Rev's movements he didn't so much as line up a pitch for an eye lid to show he could.

"Wow, the tech here is amazing, almost as amazing as back home, and that's half a century away, maybe more, maybe not even that if your still using the old Christian calendar, in which case gadgets at this level are even more cool, almost as good as your stuff Tails, if not better, unless this is your stuff, in which case while I really have to apologise you have definitely been holding out on me, but if they are your toys could ya please keep them on a leash, because man those things were cranky!"

Shadow's eventual look said _I'm Going To Put My Foot In His Flight Path And See What Happens._

Knuckles waiting one would have like to have said _Your Foot Would get Scythed Off and I'd Get To Watch_ but instead said _I Know You Can't Be Bothered, So Don't_.

"Rev, over here please."

The Road Runner's beak materialised in front of his nose.

"Yep?"

_Just deal with it like you would a super fast ADD kid…or whenever Sonic comes to dinner._

"You know how we beat these things?"

"Guile, tactics and cunning? Although technically aren't guile and cunning the same thing, and you need to be tactful to be cunning, is that the right word, I don't know, man all this cloak and dagger stuff is really really neat, but totally confusing, you gotta remember all sorts of stuff, like I Don't Know But I've Been Told, worst song _ever_, you know what the army really needs, yodelling, seriously, there is nothing like yodelling, nothing at all, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a champion yodeller…"

Knuckles held up a hand, blocking out Rev's face like the moon eclipsing the sun. He didn't let his slight surprise that the noise stopped show.

"Nope. We beat these things because whenever you got near one. It. Blew. Up."

The long necked head peeked through the space between slab of rock hard flesh and thumb. Knuckles saw the beak starting to blur with that slight speed haze that he had come to recognise as Talk Mode Activated and decided he wasn't done yet.

"Blew up. Like ground zero fireworks. Bang, boom, zoom kinda blew up. Really pretty if your into war zone art-I'm not by the way-but its like back with the TV."

He lowered the hand. The Road Runner said nothing. The echidna took that as a signal of interest or confusion, most likely both, and tried to take advantage of it. Staring with the theory buzzing away at the back of his left lobe. More like ringing from the flaring energy field surrounding the Road Runner.

"Shadow and I…know our way around some energy signatures. Can recognise them. Feel them if we concentrate. You're generating something. It's there, all around you in every movement, but it spills out when you kick it into high gear. Is this part of your powers? Because a heads up would have been nice."

As much as he'd like to see Shadow swatted away by a flying girder, he was vaguely aware of the power of cartoon physics, meaning he'd probably be smacked out of his viewing spot by the same girder before he could get the first G out of gloat. He didn't need that out in the middle of a combat field, and whatever else was to come in the company of the Road Runner. Like dinner. With spoons. And forks. And knives. And chop sticks.

Hey, it could happen.

And that was just assuming the effects were magnetic. The organic effects would most likely be worse.

Rev stared out over the breaking waves rolling into the side of the cliff housing Tail's workshop. After the sound of battle and constant use of vocal cords the silence was almost terrifying. Something either mumbled too low to be heard or too fast to be comprehended hissed out of the Road Runner's beak.

"What?"

"The comet." Rev repeated. His look was more serious than Knuckles would ever have thought possible. Like when Sonic found out the hamburger was more popular than the chilidog. Rev sighed, face becoming so downcast that if Shadow had had a heart it would have melted. The hard look had returned by the time the Road Runner looked back up.

"We gotta talk."

---

Sonic put his head on one side, watching the rabbit girl cheer on wildly.

_It's not that she's not hot…but there is that…it's that she's…well, hand to God honest…it's that she's pink._

Save one clingy fortune teller from an exploding planet and you were sent running like hell at the slightest suggestion of peach. That kinda got in the way of things. What exactly could a super sonic nomad offer to a girl any way? A normal, honest to God sixteen to eighteen year old girl, somewhere sufficiently above or below his age group anyway? He wasn't a super hero, that would be chaotic enough. He was freelance. Where and if he was needed and right out over the edge of the chaotic with only experience and adaptability keeping him alive. He _liked_ that. Loved it. Average ordinary everyday mom and dad's apple pie day to day girls…not so much. But then, since when did he hang with ordinary girls? Sally, Mina, Fiona…and then there was Amy. Hard to tame the party animal and stand still for the half a second or two it would take to actually start thinking about having a relationship. And while commitment was a very real problem there was past experience.

_So…__what, I gotta turn off my instincts completely?_

He blinked suddenly, realizing she had stopped. Was staring _at_ him.

---

There was this…disease that hung over Station Square. Constantly, although mainly at day

Step down one street to reach a book shop on the other side, intending quite innocently to purchase, say, a short history book that might prove better then the typical tour guide pamphlet bull you picked up on the street corner outside your hotel, and about half way there you woke up in a casino on the other side of town or at the very top of a Twinkle Park (Jesus, humans and their commercialism…) roller coaster seconds away from the make or break plunge. You couldn't run against the atmosphere, only jog along in it's wake and try and see what was happening _this time _through the blinding sunlight. Not that Knuckles, as the last of thousand centuries old blood line dating back to before anthromorph/human interaction, had that much experience with Station Square. Vegas out did it but lacked that California meets New York atmosphere that made it so…Station Square. It was a stepping stone, but one hell of a stepping stone. Bright lights, big city. Go figure.

"You sure about this?"

He kept one hand on the door to the rental jeep, eye scanning left, right, right, left, right, the same direction as that cat with the very short purple skirt…uh, left. He adjusted the sunglasses he'd grabbed from the work shop. Keeping an eye out for thieves. Yeah, that was it. Tails huffed, indignation clear through the strain of securing the large back pack.

"I've done this a hundred times Knuckles. More than that actually."

The echidna tried not to go redder, from indignation or embarrassment. Despite several combat missions alongside the kid and the fact that other than legal status and money he required little in the way of support from Charles Hedgehog, preferring the solitary inventor life balanced by sleep in visits from Sonic and various other friends made over the years, it was still difficult not to think of the kid as…well, damn it, a ten year old kid. One that could slap your head off your shoulders if he moved his tails with full speed and weight, but still. Could have been worse though. He could have been trying to hold the kid's hand.

"Just doing security detail. You were set up with the mission parameters."

The no nonsense G.I route sounded like a offended, concerned mother.

"Yeah, why am I the one with the curfew shoved up my butt while Shadow gets to stalk off through the night and play commando?"

"Because he vanished before I could be bothered asking for his help. Besides, he's not the issue. The issue is if you can pull this off while I'm trying to keep a low profile."

"I suppose you know how to jury rig a…"

Knuckles was fifty percent sure the kid made the following series of words up.

"No, but I can dance. Wanna see?"

Tail's snorted. His look was amused rather than derisive but faded to concern.

"You okay? You've been kind of on edge since we came up with the idea."

The idea had been to get Rev out of the super slick super suit and into something less conspicuous, all the better to scrape up some resources to put the portal back together. Problem was, Rev without the suit was…even more conspicuous. Road Runners weren't common to this dimension and therefore probably didn't have that much to do with this planet. The long neck was slowly murdering the hoodie they'd grabbed out of the dust infested trunk and if red and black had been bad camouflage, purple and blue was worse. Of course any hostiles could probably laugh themselves to dehydration by the sheer act of wetting themselves But when were there not hostiles? Not property damage?

And the pants. The long green pants covering the freakish chicken stilt legs. Oh God, the pants.

Red Guardian Echidnas weren't that common either, but at least had some basis in early evolutionary history. And didn't wear green pants. But what fur colour hadn't quite done media attention had, the shades at best buying him razor's edge time. The blue Hawaiian shirt dotted with little yellow pineapples did help in acting as a kind of furniture. No hero could possibly wear a costume that bad. But again even with his Guardian brotherhood birthmark hidden, Clark Kent he was not and his options were too limited for anything else.

"Driving into town to grab parts…yeah, okay. I don't want to leave Rev alone since he could blow up something important and screw up our chances of getting him back home , but this is a city. Lot of important things here. Assuming it is the energy from that comet in his system that's affecting everything. And Robotnik's tinker toys are still out there."

"So you don't think Rev's safe either way?"

Knuckles shrugged.

"I don't want to see what happens when he stops at a cross walk. There's too many electronics around here but, unless Robotnik orders it, the Tin woodsman's relatives aren't in the habit of dive bombing heavily populated areas. Guess he was planing on leaving something to conquer after blowing up half the planet. But if Rev stays up there he's a sitting duck."

"Road Runner." Fox and bird supplied.

"Whatever."

Tails pulled a blue baseball cap over his head, reluctantly keeping his twin tails intertwined and therefore looking like one bushy tail. Being the hero of Station Square put him more in the public eye than simply standing out in news photos from the constant blue of a speeding Sonic, and shyness could easily give way to appreciation. Despite himself the lack of attention was mildly frustrating. There'd be no fooling the clerks in the electronics stores he made second, third, fourth and fifth homes for himself, but the echidna had decided this would be a silent running mission.

Robotnik's robots may be monitoring communication channels and two of the most popular heroes on the planet showing up would draw far too much attention and firepower. Attention was to be avoided, as it would eventually shift from the fact they were there and Sonic wasn't. The robots seemed stuck on some kind of instant kill mode, possibly because no one was around to tell them any different, and individuals such as Mammoth Mogul, Ixis Naugus, A.D.A.M, Mephiles, Erazor Djinn and every other major psycho on the planet didn't need an excuse to celebrate.

Firepower was self explanatory. Especially if G.U.N got involved. Knuckles tried to avoid that line of thought. Better to start moving, consequences came when they came.

"Okay, let's go over this one more time. Tails?"

The fox got to go first because of the unsubtle groan.

"Go to the stores, get what I need, get out."

Knuckles nodded.

"And if someone does recognise you?"

"Try to avoid getting dragged into a conversation about Sonic unless it's someone we know, if it's not and I can't fly outta there, just lie."

"And if it _is_ someone you know?"

Knuckle's look through the lenses was almost a physical thing. Tails had been ready for this.

"Do not talk to Amy. At all."

"You added that last part."

"I thought it fit pretty good."

"Agreed. Rev?"

The Road Runner nodded. And nodded. And nodded.

"Try and avoid talking to anyone unless you say it's okay, because I'm sure anyone you know has to be just great, apart from that Shadow guy, and in all honesty you don't strike me as that much of a social person, but hey I've known you for, like, five minutes, so I could be way off, anyway, I gotta avoid talking to people because I'd probably freak them out, just stick close to you because you know your way around and I don't, although I think I forgot to mention my GPS, it's sorta like telekinesis, or is it telepathy I always get those too mixed up, but it's really cool, like being a mom cause you can find anything wrong going down like _that_, oop, sorry about that little sonic boom there, gotta remember to slow down the fingers, takes a little time, I used to play piano, but anyway back to the point, I need to stick to you and avoid being spotted, got it. Oh, and don't freak out if any pink hedgehog girls grab me, go limp if they hug me so they don't break my neck, and don't talk to them, like, at all."

Knuckle laughed. It wasn't clear if it was good hysterics or bad hysterics.

"Yeah, something like that Rev."

Tail's lifted he cap brim slightly, regarding the echidna frankly.

"You _sure _you don't want me to give him the grand tour of downtown and give your ears a rest?"

"Nah, we only have this plan. Let's not increase our chances of getting killed by thinking about it. You have your objective cadet. Quick march."

Tails paused in the mid mock salute, realising he was the only one who had an objective as such.

"So…what _about _you?"

"Us? It's Friday in Station Square."

Knuckles draped an arm over the hooded Road Runner's thin shoulders, smile perhaps the most genuine in the past couple of hours.

"We're hitting the beach, amigo."

---

Ace's gauntlet beeped. The three hero convoy of Zoomatrixes slowed to a hovering stop, cockpit shields sliding back. Helmet removed, Ace tapped the response sequence and held his wrist at the familiar crocked angle to both display to the group and himself. Hologram light flashed out, slid into the separate beams from Tech and Duck's separate gauntlets then formed the space for Zadavia's image to fill in.

"What's up boss lady?"

Hair billowing like seaweed underwater, Zadavia regarded the scene around them. Ace knew what it must look like on underwater monitors. Smoke, fire, cracked asphalt, roads blocked like clogged arteries by rubble…typical, but unnerving because it felt new.

"I see you've been busy."

Ace shrugged, careful to avoid disrupting the feed, yet eager to get down to basics before the standard hyperbole spilled out of Duck's opening beak.

"Nah, we've mostly been tracking down this Robotnik guy. Or trying to."

A light based eye brow was raised.

"Robotnik? The danger our new visitor mentioned?"

"Sonic, yeah. Turns out he's kinda smarter then we figured. There's some kinda strategy going on. He went after info on the neighbourhood first instead of resources, and while we've got an idea where he's going, he had his wind up toys rough up enough stuff that's it's gonna take us awhile to get there. We've been ambushed twice by a couple of his junk yard pals. This guys a lot nastier than you'd think."

He indicated the still fresh laser burns and battle dents spaced almost picturesquely across each vehicle. Duck shrugged to back up the snort.

"With a name like Robotnik he'd have to be. High school _could not _have been fun."

Tech waited until a passing ambulance lumbered by, taking the sound of sirens with it, before voicing something that had been bothering him pretty much since leaving headquarters.

"What's happened to communications? We haven't gotten any word from you since getting called out here. Seems to hit closer to home to. Lexi and Slam either aren't wearing their comms or nothing's getting through. It's the same pretty much at every scene, emergency teams are down to word of mouth unless they figure out how stop their channels turning on and off again."

A regal hand was placed thoughtfully to a regal chin.

"I'd have asked for a status report earlier but I have experienced similar difficulties gaining and sending a signal. Although it seems easier now. I've had similar problems with about thirty percent of general city communications, domestic or otherwise."

"Part of his first move?" Ace guessed.

"If it is he's being very generous about it. Apart from areas where he appears to have actually been, the signal is decently clear if delayed. Although that has been building for a while now. Still, if this is part of an overall attack ploy why not simply black out the whole city? He's creating larger pockets of panic than we'd like, but a city wide attack would gain larger results."

Ace sighed. Even the good was looking bad and they hadn't even fought the guy yet. Duck didn't seem to notice.

"I say let him do his worst, it'll be a cloudy day in July when a mere villain is considered a match _for__** Danger**_…"

The crash behind him failed to drown out his yelp. Avian hands flashed, pulling matter and energy together into revolving energy eggs, Duck's fear almost leading to an inventive way of using Aqua Dense. The robot rubble seemed unimpressed.

"Anyway…" Tech said pointedly. He pinched the bridge of his snout. It had been a long day, a long evening approaching before a longer night. Thank God most super villains decided to take weekends off. Or whoever had thought to install TV and air conditioning in prison.

The coyote scratched his brow, shuffling fur beneath fabric as if trying to trace the electrical arcs of each brain impulse as the thought emerged from the cloud of multiple ideas.

"Zadavia…if you can get a bead on where the black outs are happening, would it be possible to find out how many there actually are overall?" He met the raised eye brow with one of his own, confirming what she thought he was thinking.

"Like a trail?"

---

"This is nice."

_And that was stupid._ Sonic thought, trying not to let it show.

"Yeah." Lexi replied from beside him on the couch. The couch that suddenly seemed like a gnat sized island in the middle of an unsure ocean. Going to the pizza parlour hadn't sounded like a good idea. Nor had any of the major food courts or restaurants Lexi had listed off, like a local girl trying to coax someone into a good thing instead of one of those C list actresses shelling out for travel agencies. The overall problem was Slam. The chaperone played the role of super hero body guard paranoid enough to make Batman proud. Any big name sight was a potential super power target, so fun was minimal. All he needed was a pair of sunglasses, but Lexi had confiscated them and they now perched proudly on the hedgehog's brow. Then there was the other issue.

"We've got a pretty big budget y'know. They wouldn't mind if we shelled out a couple of bucks seeing the sights."

"But there's a fridge here! Why should Slam pay for food when there's a fridge here?" He half leaned over the back off the couch. "Am I right, bro?"

A purple gloved hand waved back half sincerely, massive black back kept to them, blotting out the fridge light.

"Excellent! Keep it real man! You're an inspiration!"

Lexi shook her head, knowing smile across pink mouth piece.

"True, so true. The Tazmanian way if life. Awe inspiring. An example to everyone."

The Tazmaninan Devil gave them an humbly smug look, tongue sticking out. The mutual laughter stopped dead as a box of something tumbled out of his hands. Orange goo stuffed with meat chunks congealed on the floor, practically mating with it.

"Slam!" Lexi cried, hands on hips. The Devil's mortified face could have belonged to a rabbit sitting next to a pile of droppings. The rabbit girl pointed at him sharply, arm swinging to the elevator door like an axe through a redwood.

"Go get some toilet paper and clean that up right now! We're all out since Rev's birthday party so you better buy in bulk!"

The whole slab of black covered muscle was gone fast enough to mildly impress Sonic. Lexi turned back to him as though nothing had happened, smile seven year old innocent.

"You wanna do anything else?"

"TV sounds good. If we've got high def on plasma screens back home, you guys have _got _to have something even cooler!"

She laughed, pounding air out of lungs through sheer surprise.

"Plasma screen? Those are, like, ancient! Older than my grandma!"

Sonic's mock offended frown would have worked better if not for the smile.

"Hey, don't knock plasma screens! The damn thing cost me like a thousand bucks! And that was just to think about buying one!"

Her laugh was louder this time. Sonic jerked a thumb in the direction of the closed doors.

"So what was that for?"

"I had to get him out of the building."

That didn't sound very good, even under this chemical free druggy haze snapping and popping around his brain and crackling down his arms to flow down…elsewhere.

"Yeeeeah?"

"Slam, Duck and Rev are anal about people touching this these things so much it makes Tech in the lab look normal."

That sounded worse.

She reached under the couch. Whatever he'd been imagining while trying not to take her in was replaced by a small silver disk. She clicked the small square bearing some kind of movie poster like picture, the thin top sliding back. Sonic grinned hugely at the smaller game cube style disk tat glistened within, eyes flying from it to the thin silver rectangle the size of a PC keyboard. Different coloured buttons covering the thing like an out brake of measles. The golden words _**MAXBOX**_ printed across it as though burned in by a comet. Two wireless disk like controllers squatted on the surface, two of the last puppies pressed up against shop glass.

"Beautiful…" he drooled.

"Thanks. I try."

Embarrassment crashed through the haze like a rock through glass.

"I…uh…was talking about the game."

Her face went though surprise to puzzlement to sharing the embarrassment.

"I know. I was…joking."

"Oh."

_Oh? Oh!?_

_This_ was Sonic the Hedgehog? This stuttering blue buffoon stupid enough to not only get himself thrown through space to crash into a different time, but fumble the ball like a thirteen year old on a first date? This guy who was stupid enough to think up analogies to be stupid over? And worst of all, traumatize the most willing of the five people (four, since the duck was kind of a jerk) to try and help him. So…start from square one. Its difficult, right? Like a challenge. Make it like one. She _knows_ how to deal with that. You do to.

"So…"

She looked up.

"MAX' box?" He grinned. What, you guys run out of names or something?"

Either of their grins could have come from a mirror.

---

"Interesting."

"Thank you." Robotnik straightened his glasses, a gloved finger running through moustache hair.

Mastermind looked up from the jumble of electronics splayed amongst the various plates of food and cutlery.

"I was referring to the pulse generator."

Blue eyes, small yet piercing, gazed at her over adjusted lenses.

"I was aware of that."

She laughed, the cowering restaurant staff almost burying through floor boards to get lower. She had to admit she was enjoying this. Daring escapes had become simply risky, advanced electronics and mechanisms were rarely this readily available, and, to her mild hidden embarrassment, the thought of taking hostages and going to ground somewhere had never occurred to her. Villainous, yet outside the confines of the box of super villainy to pass undetected. The idea was hers of course, the invitation his. Partners hadn't featured in her world for a while now since the entire Optimatus disaster. But one look at the electronics in those robots, (_Actual technology!_) and she couldn't say no. And to his credit, Robotnik was the first partner to actually provided food (_Actual food!_) when she said she was hungry. A quick hover over to this restaurant a few blocks away, leaving the reprogrammed automated drones to continue what they were doing, and here they were. It had been years since she'd had an actual Friday night out. It was different…nice.

Robotnik broke off a piece of stake, tossing it to a cluster of terrified children almost squashed together in protective parental strangleholds. He returned his smile. It was cute, feeding the animals like that. He was such a sweetheart, for a villain. Or rather philanthropic terrorist as he preferred to be addressed.

A security button embedded in Robotnik's lapel buzzed angrily, flashing an irritating electric blue. Mastermind sighed, stirring the remains of a salad with a fork as if she had a grudge against it.

"Now? And must it be that colour? I hate that colour."

Robotnik grinned widely.

"Sorry, security feature. It alert me certain levels of intruders. Super powered intruders in this case. A force of habit. I recalibrated it a little to detect the energy signature you described."

She smirked back.

"How many? There can only be five Loonatics left if our theories concerning your transfer

are correct."

Robotnik reached into the jumble squatting on the table top, selecting a holocomm, flicking it on.

The halls of the military base blinked past slowly, the security footage eventually coming to the tunnels leading to the sub-sub-basement workshop for the newest version of a weapon the Loonatics had returned months ago. And had been ineffective against, that was important. Three of them, the rabbit, the duck and that damn dog flashed past the camera, the scraps of conquered reprogrammed security drones rolling behind them.

"How irritating."

Robotnik reached for a near by remote control, oddly simplistic against the sophistication littering the table…pausing as Mastermind's hands hovered over his own.

She retracted it a little.

"May I?"

He drew his back all the way.

"I'd be insulted if you didn't."

She could practically hear the frantic emergency frequencies dancing over the air waves, see the looks on their faces as the garage doors pulled back to reveal the shapes squatting within. It was almost poetic in it's irony. The idea of animals would never have occurred to her, the benefit of having a partner on this level. Spiders, scorpions, tigers, lizards, birds and rhinos. She snickered. Dogs. All headed for Loonatics HQ.

This should be very interesting.

She clicked it.

"Dessert?" She offered.

"Please."

---

Two sets of eyes stared at the hole in the TV screen, big and gaping as their mouths should be if shock hadn't ionised them shut. Sonic ran a dry tongue around his mouth, turning it into a crowbar to pry his lips apart.

"Are TV's supposed to do that?"

Lexi shook her head, eyes never leaving the screen. Or lack thereof.

"Didn't. Didn't think so."

Sonic could barely remember anything, or rather could and was simply overwhelmed by it, a strange thing for a speedster. It felt like minutes ago, mainly because it was. They'd been neck and neck in _Black Hole Grand Prix 111, Blackout_, his heart pounding, his grin wild at the way past real graphics…before the explosion had punched it's way out the screen, practically through the middle of the finish line. Instinct and enhanced reflexes had saved the bunny girl from a bad hair day and worse, the hedgehog dragging her to the floor as glass and fire screamed towards them. Better the couch than them. He realised his hand was o her back, and removed it as though burnt.

She snorted. Then giggled. Her laugh, when it came, was pure and strangely comforting. He felt terrified guards melt down to become a new, slightly more confidant foundation. She wiped a tear from her eye, the material of her suit glistening with the moisture.

"I gotta say…despite everything…I'm kinda having a good time."

He smiled weakly.

"Good?"

"Yeah…yeah…_really_ good." She looked at him, smiling. "_Really_ good."

"Uh…really?"

She nodded, looking straight at him even as she tried to toss her braid out of her face and behind her ears. Sonic reached out a gloved hand almost without thinking. They froze as the green band drifted to a halt behind the rabbit.

"It's…it's stuff like that." She managed, voice almost breathless.

"What?" His voice was practically the same. He didn't know why.

"Don't you…don't you _feel_ that?"

The hedgehog could feel _something_, and it was not the kind of thing you discussed in public.

"Lex, I…"

She put a finger to his lips.

"Shh."

She then put her lips to his lips. For a very long time. Each closed their eyes…

And saw sparks.

---

"Bet you really _are _Sonic." the ten year old duck in the blue hat said. He looked smugly pleased with this declaration.

Rev gulped. The split second bulge in his neck was disturbingly surreal.

"Uh, um, that is, I, ah, uh, I'm not Sonic, although I told you that five times already, you gotta believe me, I mean do I look like a hedgehog, although my feathers are kind of a mess today, of course it could be just the clothes, I'm getting kinda sweaty with my costume on underneath all this, uh, I mean, no I'm not Sonic, I'm not a super hero, I don't have any super powers of any kind at all, I was always picked last for laps at college, kinda ironic now…"

Knuckles took a defensive step forward. It might have helped if he was capable of towering over the trio of brightly coloured boys, but he had to settle for them being around waist height.

"He's not Sonic."

"But…" began the one in the red cap.

"He's not Sonic."

"But…" chimed in the one in the green cap.

"He's not Sonic."

"But…" the one in blue almost pleaded.

"He's. Not. Sonic."

Knuckles pointed to the end of the beach a _very_ long way away. He mad sure to strain every muscle in his arm to emphasise maximum distance.

"Sonic's over there."

The two beach walkers breathed sighs of well deserved relief as a multicoloured dart took off into the distance, continuing their aimless stroll after they were surer than the sun rising that the small piles of rocks and various other ocean oddities wouldn't be spawning anymore duckling trios to throw at them.

"Didn't handle that too well did I?" Rev kept his hands in his pockets, eyes almost magnetised to the sand. Knuckles almost smirked, but settled for a more kindly version. Didn't stop Rev looking like a manly crying album cover.

"Hey, being a hero is hard enough. Being _the _hero? That's a lot more than anyone should ask."

Rev may have returned the smile as he returned the gaze, his face seeming to sag around his eyes as they widened at the source of faint shadow creeping predator like over the beech. The air suddenly felt a lot heavier. Turning around proved to be a mistake.

The sunlight seemed unsure how to deal with the big scary heavy duty battleship moving across it's path, seeming to settle for glinting off it menacingly while technically letting it blot it out. Knuckles took in the aircraft like a seasoned car veteran presented with the latest model, an feeling of slightly high octane panic bubbling away underneath.

_The Egg Carrier? _

Or at least it had been before what had presumably been a very ugly collision with an even uglier…whatever was supposed to be squatting at various points around the hull and presumably up top on the deck. Wet gravel grey pebbledashed across metallic if faded and rusted red, odd metal barnacle shapes either clinging to the thing or part of it, ugly yellow cables running, twisting, hugging and generally just being there tracing a mad man pattern across the entire thing. More cannon shapes than Knuckles remembered protruded here and where everything else wasn't there, clustering together with unnervingly sharp blades or spikes, from this distance it was hard to tell but he was pretty sure he didn't want to get up close and find out. The thrusters spit out faint vapour streams that faded away like starved ghosts, visible only because there were so many of them. The hulk seemed to be propelled by a pulsing pale green light deep within the thrusters, although similarly shaded lightning crackled off every spiked tip and earthed itself into every cable before zooming off somewhere else in an endless nightmare pattern.

The entire thing glistened poisonously as it finished drifting over the beach and came to rest, hovering like the world's worst Broche rendition of a vulture, over the city. Knuckle's lowered his head before his neck broke off trying to follow the entire thing.

"Rev, this looks bad. You've probably seen a bunch of stuff like this back home, but I think…"

He was talking to a rapidly thinning trail of dust. Heading straight for downtown.

Knuckles peered over the rim of his shades, replacing them to squint up at the heavens.

"I'm being punished, aren't I?"

---

"Stay close, we gotta do a wide spread!"

Hands clamped around jetpack joysticks, Ace felt his body numb with focus yet shudder with power as energy hammered out of nothing, streaming up optic nerves and pounding against pupils. Narrowed, they became burning laser sights, clanking curves and masses of steel, metal and wire swinging in and out of view.

Each blast raced across the horde, mix matched light flashing painful black and white with unrestrained power. Tech in particular was surprisingly vicious. Being forced to self destruct all three Zoomatrixs to slow down the rampaging horde had been traumatizing, but fortunately targets for plenty of healthy rage release were plentiful.

The leading wave evaporated into shrapnel and fire, Duck quaking twenty centimetres to the left to avoid a large piece of scything, flaming wreckage. An emerald magnekenisis blast popped the support bolts of an upcoming suspension bridge (idle construction equipment indicating it was thankfully abandoned), wrapped around it like a starving anaconda and hurling it backwards into the perusing second wave.

They landed a full mile ahead of the crisscrossing I-beams, piled like a two story mountain.

Duck's panting carried over the distant tin can echoing on the other side of the make shift barricade. The glow of the twin eggs in each hand was smaller than usual.

"Think that'll hold 'em?"

An I-beam shifted with a bang. Ace drew his sword.

"Nope."

Another movement further up the mound was the only warning. One of the strange new style robots, spider like with the tell tale picked apart and put back together Mastermind flair, black wire coil legs dotted with silver and orange plating leading into what may at some point have been an air conditioning unit, loomed over the tip of the highest beams, focused a camera eye with a surreally small whirring. It's shadow was large and black as it leapt. It didn't get any smaller when it landed. A blast of laser vision and magnetic beams, a barrage of explosive eggs and a slash down the middle curtsey of the Guardian Strike Sword took care of it, but the damage was done, the example set. Hunched shapes lined the tip of the pile, squatted against the evening sky like metal moons. Too many shapes and far too many sizes to pull it off smoothly though.

A purple wind tore them off and up, smacking them back behind the blockage and down onto the scrambling massed beneath them. The series of explosions barely had time to fade before the remains of the bridge came apart and toppled down the street through midair like dancing metallic dominos, obliterating the remaining waves.

Ace smiled, relived, not turning around until he'd sheathed his weapon.

"Nice move big guy."

Slam returned his thumbs up, faint wind trails fading away around his hand. His aim had been computer targeting worthy, despite the lop sided pose he'd been forced to adopt around the weight of the crate of…

Ace, Duck and Tech held a staring contest to see who'd ask. Tech lost.

"Uh…what's with the tissue paper Slam?"

Slam snarled his way through an explanation. Duck frowned at it, a gloved hand scratching a masked scalp.

"But I stoked up last week after Rev's birthday party. We're full up." He recalled the aftermath of his present, All You Can Eat Chilli Gurt Dogs at the Worldrome, and shuddered. "We _had_ to be."

A boom carried up the evacuated blocks, the distant warehouse swelling, then unfolding in an entropy of dust and collapsing metal and stone. A large shape, the size of the average human this far off, glinted in the setting sun. The shape was the Troll Bot 9001, the head a battleship of platinum framing a stylised front of red metal curves, almost like a moustache.

The battle armour glinted platinum on the chest, arms, crotch and legs, the pelvis, hands and feet the same shade of red as the face plating. Time Skip would have gone nuts.

"A giant robot?" Tech snorted in canine derision. "That's the best they could do?"

The giant kicked it's way loose of the skeletal frame of the building, right foot dragging along the air. One building folded into another, each dissolving into dust and solidifying into tumbling rubble.

Ace's face was grim.

"I think it'll do."

Duck waved an unconcerned hand.

"Eh, no problem, this is why God invented defence systems. Five minutes and I'll blow that thing away before it even reaches headquarters."

The light made each of them turn, regretting it instantly as closed eyes and raised arms proved feeble shields against the intensity. Acme Tower glowed like a deranged bug zapper, shook as thunder strike fast lightning shot out of the penthouse globe and danced around and down the building. The jets of smoke from the blown out electronics on various floors was nowhere near as cinematic as the defence system battlements, which shook outward, caved inward still dancing with electricity, finally mushrooming upward and downward at the same time as they blew apart. One by one by one. The beacon atop the entire structure flickered surreally before stabilising and glowing away as if nothing had happened. It was the only thing the three could look at for a very long feeling time.

Duck clapped his hands together decisively.

"So! I'm hearing Mars is nice this time of year."


	3. Hope It Don't kill You

-1Boo.

Betcha thought I forgot about this didn't ya?

Please note that the Allen Theory described here is not particularly accurate to it's source material in DC Comics, but it's close enough for the purposes of the big reveal.

--

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

Knuckles pounded across First Avenue, leaping fires and shattered metal. Seemed to be a lot of that. Too much. And there'd probably be more later on. Way too much.

Air split like atoms, thundering down and through pounding muscles. Stronger swearing followed, drowned out by the overhead roar of multiple United Federation Special Forces raptors streaking towards the mutilated Egg Carrier.

"Idiots! Gonna make everything…"

The echidna ducked low, hand over squinting eyes as metal imploded repeatedly, scything into buildings like shot down phoenixes. Station Square's transit station was a crater with a platform shaped sack of stone, glass and steel sitting on it. The view didn't get much better further up the street, what could be seen through the smoke. He kicked a smouldering lead pipe, because it made him feel better, leapt and scrambled up the still warm debris. Rooftops, that was the thing, he had to get to the rooftops. Not exactly the best place to be with jet fighters blowing up and a massive scary nightmare ship of death hovering over the city, but it'd be faster leaping and gliding than on foot. Station Square's streets were too narrow for this, the buildings too close together here in downtown, and now clogged with rubble. This was why Sonic preferred it up here when unable to cruise the massive open inner city highways, and from above Knuckles would be able to make out what was him and what was burnt smelling dust. Daylight came as a weary shock, a little too bright at first, but the wide open space full of oxygen allowed a grand total of seven seconds to get his breath back, something you learned to do in a war zone.

A ledge just next to him suddenly sported a juddering wing in a shower of sparks and brick dust, slamming him into a lunge, roll and run to the next roof, playing hopscotch with narrow Californian ledges and burning metal. A Raptor skeleton through the last roof sent him air borne, a deadly fall turned into a glide. Claws rammed into concrete like steel bars, he settled on a building in an apparent blind spot beneath the Carrier and out of the Raptor's range. That wasn't as settling as it could be.

The gutted remains of uptown leered up at the Carrier's underbelly, steel beams peeking out at odd angles from decimated rooftops. Knuckles breathed in black fumes and frigid air with a grey shade of relief. No corpses. No people. He tucked that thought away for later, focusing on the distant screaming of something hurtling down through the air fast enough to sheer the left wing off the last remaining Raptor. Muscles uncoiled, full of bubbling adrenaline and training, sending the echidna somersaulting away from the tower as a patch work egg of various alloys splintered down through the hollow spire of bricks and mortar. Knuckles twisted into a boneless, flopping lean, locking both hands around a crooked flag pole, sparks burning from under skidding metal soles as he skidded from rooftop to rubble to boulevard. He fumbled the landing, arms pinwheeling before he toppled forward, skidding to a halt on hot asphalt. Grinding was so much easier with poles. Moaning, he took stock of his resources (essentially himself), pushing himself up with a slightly shaking arm. He'd lost his sunglasses when the first bombardment hit as he reached the city limits, what was left of his shirt had caught fire, and slivers of glass had scraped his arm on the way down, smaller shards embedding into his fur without him really realising. Strands of fur on his back were starting to smoke slightly, red bacon in the numb oven heat of the flaming rags. Metallic shapes loomed and lumbered through the smoke.

_Don't make any sudden moves…make some definite ones!_

Only half panicking, he unshouldered the burning remains, tossing them like a cotton arrow head at the nearest arachnid shape. A smelting pot black pincer swatted the bundle out of the air, bending the disintegrating fingers of flame and fabric around it in seconds, but it was all the echidna needed.

A grime stained hand smashed through a red LCD lens, fumbled around various thin and bulky shadows, gripped something hopefully important and pulled. Knuckles rolled as he fell back, towing a sparking mess of cables, rising to meet two of the charging metal scorpions as the former leader spasmed.

He ducked, shoving what had once been an interface between armour plates as the creatures lunged, sparks and gravel brushing against his fur in a quick, painful one two rhythm as the thing bucked, tail thrashing. The other scorpion (_Since when did egg head go in for arachnids?_) vaulted over it, asphalt splintering under a lashing pincer, the echidna staggering back and crying out as his head banged off a car door.

This simply made him angry and gave him a shield to not so much stand against the striking tail as bash it away, and then a weapon to ram repeatedly off the robot's head until it caved in at the same time it split down the middle.

A kick to the chaise sent the thing rolling and clanking to a heap in front of the third creature as it stood up, wires cast aside by an angry pincer, smoke billowing underneath it. It paused as Knuckles sank into a feral crouch, one clenched fist up, car door held like a baseball bat waiting for a skull.

"Got any funny ideas, spiky?"

The sound of metal caving in made him turn slightly. He turned fully to make sure he'd actually seen what he thought he saw. The amount of metal behind him could only be called a battalion, but an unorganised one. At least ostensibly. More scorpions, spiders bathed in a faint dirty glow from energy dancing around their wire thin legs and pulsing in back mounted laser cannons, wasps hovering on glass shining wings, tear dropped shaped daggers of black metal instead of the rocket propelled group of spheres used in the past, and several reptilian shapes, saw blade backed and joints whirring with constant scuttling.

Knuckles smiled coldly at the robot.

"Good answer."

He thrust the shied through the joint between body and tail, launching himself after it and over the startled creature, bouncing off the road and landing in a run. A crunch behind him as the robot vanished into the stampede of metal made him speed up. The flood of laser fire pounding at his heels helped.

He darted around at a blur in the corner of his vision, sending a fist through a glass wing as the wasp's laser blasts missed one of his dreadlocks by inches. It hurtled away in a zigzag of smoke and sparks. He kept going, knocking aside rubble and the occasional robot that lunged from behind or out of the shadows. He sped up as the streets became less scarred, taking wider strides away from the danger zone and struggling for a strong enough gust to glide on in the wider streets. A left, a right, left, right, laser fire, _leftleftleftleftleft_…

Mistake. Dead end. Climb?

A stray shot reached the wall ahead of the shadows. Nope. They'd shoot him down mid flight. Fight time then.

A manhole cover clanked in protest under an eager claw, dust rising off old metal. On old asphalt…

Three blows did the work of several pounds of high grade explosives, seconds before the fray charged in for the kill. It took less than that for Knuckles to realise that while they would land crashing in a heap in the sewer tunnels so would he as we…

It was the rain that woke him up, sudden and cold. A heart beat fast lightning flash forced him to close his opening eyes tightly, the slamming sound of the air imploding through the grey shaft of sky rolling over aching limbs. The darkness around him pinged and clanged like the sounds of a far away steel foundry, rain water pouring down onto still metal shells, slightly warm with dying battery heat. Some of the points of jagged upturned metal almost made him shiver, the rain finishing the job as he stood up…very carefully. He'd landed in an almost circular space between an overturned spider and a sprawled reptile. Not as good as it could be since his back was killing him, but better than death by shish kabob.

Dreadlocks trailing mud (_Please let it be mud__…_), he set off one handed against one wall, breathing slow and rhythmically, each surge of his lungs pushing the pain back. His legs could still carry him at least. To the surface? He thought about the gigantic shadow of the Egg Carrier and then tried not to. Plus there were bound to be more of these things around, depending on how long he'd been out.

Being underground made everything a little easier to take in, secure on a lot of primal levels, not one of them childish. Even with numbers against him, this would still be his specific environment, ripe with darkness and potential traps. Rain may be a problem, with his luck he'd turn out to have landed in an aqueduct and end up getting caught in a run off, maybe even a flash flood the way the storm was picking up over head. He tried to imagine he was imagining the water level rising. Drowning in someone else's crap wasn't the way he wanted to go, so he stood still for a few seconds, feeling for the tells of higher ground. A breeze between outlets, the smell of a water processing turbine, anything…

He took a right, crouching in wait at a distorted rushing sound echoing up the tunnel, lunged out claws first, and almost decapitated a startled Rev.

"Whoa, easy man, friend, comrade, amigo, do not harm!"

The bones in the echidna's arm almost fractured, claws stopping inches from the Roadrunner's beak.

"Tempting…but no."

He smirked, practically collapsing against the tunnel wall, flexing his right arm. It hurt, but you needed that to temper the onslaught of relieved pheromones that could leave you running on empty when they were done. Emergency lights flickered overhead, Rev still somehow managing to stand out as the foreground. That might not be a good thing. Too many gas lines down here for a spark throwing Roadrunner. Still…

"You run into those robots to?"

"Yeah, this Robotnik guy must really like animals, although technically spiders and scorpions are arachnids and reptiles are…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

Knuckles got to his feet, wiping away beads of sweat he hadn't realised had been there and shrugging so the glass still in his arm only _hurt_.

"Hey, you okay, let me take a look at that, hold still…"

The thought of long avian fingers prodding at his wounds to see if they hurt and an expert diagnosis that he was in extreme pain almost had the echidna moving faster than the Roadrunner in protest, but Rev surprised him, tapping one of the oversized gauntlets covering his hand.

Black slid back from black, circuitry centuries ahead of the curve gleaming alongside a white iPod sized box. Rev removed two, one stacked on top of the other and as thin as candy bars. The change in his attitude, pure concentration, was surprising but what was more startling was the fact he actually _slowed down_.

"Hold out your arm. Go limp."

Knuckles did so, slumping against the wall partially from exhaustion, partially from sheer surprise. The tunnel glowed a faint red as Rev's eyes lit up, darkening his mask even further. The narrow eyed look seemed even more sinister with the blade shaped grin he flashed at the echidna.

"Don't freak out. Just using the old GPS to find the worst of the worst."

Knuckles took his word for it. It was kind of cool anyway. Each piece of glass was removed by a pair of sleek spider leg like clippers after the brief hiss of a small needle tipped cylinder, presumably anaesthetic or something futuristically similar. Knuckles was slightly startled by the sudden heated light of a laser, but the tingle along each cut didn't carry the smell of burning fur and each of them seemed to…close themselves. He decided not to go into the mechanics of how his flesh was being put back together. The second, unopened container held rather un-futuristic bandages, but they got the job done, cutting off any chance of infection the laser had missed.

"Thanks. Not a magic cordial, but it'll do."

Rev looked puzzled, glow fading.

"Huh?"

"Forget about it. Hey, how'd that thing with your powers hold up against the junk yard squad up top?"

The gauntlet was replaced along with the flashing light of Rev's GPS or whatever it was supposed to be.

"Yeah, kinda, at least it did at first, I didn't get much of a chance to go all out against them, too busy saving people…"

"From what? That thing didn't start bombing the place with bugs until those GUN idiots showed up."

"GUN?" 

"G.U.N. Guardian Units of some kinda crap. They sent out a fleet of United Federation raptors and spent the better part of the first assault getting themselves blown to hell and almost taking me with them. But as far as I knew, that thing hadn't launched anything until it had established who could do what to who."

Like the military was ever actually _useful _for stuff like this…

"Uh, yeah, about that, there was kinda a few 'bots stomping around by the time I showed up, and, uh…"

Knuckle's didn't have to think about it too hard.

"How much damage?" He asked quietly.

"Oh no, no, no, nothing major, nothing, uh, nothing major, just a bunch of traffic lights and a couple of street lights…it was weird though…"

Knuckles gave Rev what he assumed was as best a sardonic look as he could manage under the circumstances, and tried to rally when it had no apparent effect.

"Weird how?"

"You'd think stuff would still be blowing up with whatever's been going on with me, and it did, only kinda slowed down I guess you'd say, like not going off on contact, taking a couple of minutes, and that's weird because these things should be scrap seconds after I touch them, not like ten minutes after, like they could hold it off or something, maybe something in the metal, or maybe whatever's happening to me is fading, I've been feeling…slower since I took off for the city and that was ten seconds ago, relatively speaking, although it may have been twelve, it's hard to acknowledge time at hypervelocity, coolest word ever, but on the other hand you do know what speed your going at automatically, like a little stopwatch in your head you can't turn off, it's kinda cool and kinda irritating at the same time, but you can go from about the same speed as a laser slug to above mach one and over like that, and just know, y'know, and that blow up thing seems to happen every time I use my powers, which is in everything I do because I can only move at normal and over speed, normal being like maximum walking pace of someone my exact height and weight, there aren't actually that many, at least not in my dimension, don't know about here, but their always active, and when their active here they seem to short out electronics, which is a mild way of putting KABOOM I know, but spontaneously combusting EMPs are like that, and since my powers are always running I should be blowing stuff up all the time, not that I want to but you can see how it would come in handy with a massive alien, sorry, _robot_ invasion, not that I think the fact I can do it is a good thing, but I just find it weird they don't, y'know?"

The echo of sewer trickles sounded like Richenback Falls in the sudden silence. Eventually the echidna was able to stand fully erect, teeth bared to the scraping of bone somewhere deep inside.

"Y'know, I actually got some of that. So if the invasion and explosion stuff was going down, how come uptown was a ghost town?"

He knew the smell of cremated flesh, and robot spider army or not, no one had died up there. Rev smirked.

"Thought you'd never ask, hold on, don't blink."

Tunnel blurred into more tunnel, running together in a dirty rainbow pattern of sewer stone and shadow, twists curving up bone and turns snapping down spine with near nauseous force, finally solidifying into a courtyard shaped chamber pebble dashed with circular access arches the size of the average tug boat. A crowd of about a thousand had packed into the space, like germs congregating inside a giant stone Swiss cheese. While entire family trees seemed to have managed to pull together, there appeared to be no group or space cleared for any wounded, and despite apparent shock there, thankfully, appeared to be no need for one.

Knuckles half expected his arm to burst open like a poked balloon as his feet reconnected with the blessedly solid ground, but the stitching or whatever Rev had done held, the pain already a vague tingle under his fur and buried in relief.

"This must be just about everybody in Station Square."

Rev nodded.

"It was getting kinda busy up there, Apocalypse Now 111 kinda busy, so I did what I could and…" 

He shrugged with what Knuckles hoped was genuine modesty. There were enough arrogant speedsters out there as it was, Sonic and Shadow's egos could easily make up two Roman empires. He nodded slowly, scanning the mass.

Humans and anthromorph of all shapes, sizes and species filled the room, but even in the flickering tunnel light it was easy to make out the floating streak of orange hovering towards them. Tails' sneakers squeaked on the wet stone as he landed, the sound amplified by the size of the space even over the rumble of constant talking down below.

He'd lost his useless baseball cap and the backpack, now looking a lot more heavier, hung from his shoulder by one singed strap, but apart from a few flecks of grime on his white under belly he appeared unharmed.

"About time."

"Missed you too, shrimp. Is this everyone?"

"Everyone not in other blocks or who got out in the evacuation."

Knuckles nodded, cupping his hands.

"Okay folks, we're gonna head further up into the system and come out near the beach. We'll then move around the city to come to the highway, where, hopefully, there'll be a bunch of GUN guys with blankets or whatever, something like that. Keep together, or close as you feel comfortable with, use the buddy system if you're that freaked, just try to keep moving until we can get you some help."

He prodded Tails to get moving on separating the crowd into a shape they could manipulate as best they could through the specified cramped tunnels , preferably serpentine, and turned to Rev as he prepared to leap down after the fox.

"Look, I need you brining up the rear, okay? A few yards behind."

Ignited gas lines flowing along a small space with a line of about a thousand people wasn't an appealing concept, but neither was the possibility of them going off in front and over head so the Roadrunner would just have to try his best not to give into instinct and possibly doom them all to a high speed death.

Large avian feet shuffled, uncomfortable but determined.

"Yeah, sure, okay, no problem."

"I'm serious Rev." 

Knuckle's face was harder than any rock he'd punched through.

"There has to be close to a million people in here. I can't afford any screw ups. I can't have something moving at well over the sound barrier just taking off without a plan. Not now. I cannot."

Rev nodded, green eyes locked on his red feet.

"Oh and…"

The Roadrunner looked up. Knuckle's let the smile spread with relief.

"Way to go."

--

Sonic groaned.

"Hey…you hear that?"

"Mmmmmm, don't care…"

Lexi snuggled further into his stomach. It was like being caressed by the sun wearing gloves of pure static electricity. It made him sit lightning bolt up right, but oh how he wanted to sink back and melt under her warm uniform…

Lexi looked at him through half open green eyes.

"You okay?" 

"Yeah, just…" He shook his head irritably. "I dunno."

"It was good for you too, right?"

Her mouth piece was suddenly a shade brighter as they looked away from each other.

"Uh, yeah, that…that was great…"

_A little too great…_

"…but if the guys ask…we only landed this way after the tornado hit."

He gestured to the broken windows and smoking electronics. Lexi shook her head, straightening her hair, then her ears.

"Nah, that just wrecked the apartment. We got thrown off the couch in an entirely coincidental way when the earthquake hit."

"Exactly. All just part of God's strange, strange sense of humour."

"Yeah, but…"

She looked at the ruins of the TV, then turned the look she'd been practising in the shattered screen to him, wide and almost pleading.

"…you liked _that_ part of the joke? Right?"

They almost didn't hear the sirens drifting up from the city as the long seconds of staring passed between them. The hedgehog placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling more confidently than he had since he arrived. She almost shuddered from the feeling, but he stood as solid and warm as rock.

"Yeah. I did. A lot."

A window sill rattled, glass making strangled music as it slid the rest of the way out of the frame. Lexi sighed, straightening the rest of the way up.

"Back to the grind."

"Yeah, let's try and skip the suspense, huh?"

The hedgehog suddenly had the rabbit in his arms, a typical speedster's fireman carry, although this time not used for rescuing damsels in distress, but carrying a comrade to arms. She shuddered slightly in his grip, and he suddenly realised where his right hand was, tingling with a familiar rushing pulse. He blushed, trying to shift position without unceremoniously dropping her to the floor…before she grasped it, slipping it back into place. She smirked a superhero daredevil grin, and his face smirked back, raising an eye brow in mock challenge.

"Hold tight."

"Bring it on."

"Since you asked…"

They took the entire space of the apartment door to the shattered window in five seconds, a sneakered foot slamming down on the sill to catapult them out into the dim evening air. Blue legs pointed straight down, a black and pink form instinctively drawing close, grin intensified. Sonic knew exactly what he was going to do before his legs started moving, the accelerated subconscious strategising of a speedster slipping into place and instantly gauging speed, angles and distance in ways you could never learn in physics and maths classes. He already had the course down the face of the tower charted out in his head, blazing in his mind like an internal speedometer pushing him into the right gear to defy gravity and fly down the building without ever leaving it's surface, and watching it unfold in front of him. He'd done it before and would do it again. But something sparked inside, made every air particle that brushed against his fur sizzle through his skin, intensifying everything as he went, like being on the verge of becoming Super Sonic drawn out. No emeralds, just him, pure speed and the universe's greatest girl in his arms, clutching at him and grinning like a maniac.

God, he loved being him.

"Hold on! Seriously! Really hold on!"

The great curve of the sphere shot past beneath them, the tallest towers of the city glinting at them upside down like a giant marble made of insubstantial water. He bent, curling into the acceleration so his stomach was pointed at the distant ground as the armoured roof struts, complete with the penthouses sphere's anti gravity generator, rocketed past. They were in real free fall now, Sonic in a swimmer's dive with Lexi thrust forward in his outstretched arms like an offering to some great sky god. Golden evening light flashed off five tower windows before Sonic kicked out a foot straighter than any bullet's course, thrusting the other one out into a simple rhythm multiplied at near hypervelocity, beginning to descend the building for real. He dragged Lexi closer to his chest as he went, her laugh billowing over the snapping of her head band ribbons, which at this speed could probably sheer the top off a diamond. He would have laughed too if his teeth hadn't been almost fused together in as wide a grin as his face would allow. God, what a feeling! He could almost feel himself sliding away from himself, as though if he turned around now he'd find himself at the head of a long line of afterimages, each grinning back and carrying a laughing bunny girl down an infinite road made of tower face. Like he could outrun light, tear away from reality and keep going and going through physical laws, an arrow aimed at Heaven, a bullet that would never stop. But he had a passenger. A passenger that made him feel like he was a million dollar thunder bolt, but he could not and would not liquefy her because he was hyped up on something.

A waterfall of sparks became a cascade, reinforced soles banging off the towers penthouse door ledge and absorbing the impact as the pair landed. Lexi blinked.

"Awww, no more?"

"Don't blink."

The multicoloured child's building blocks of Acmetropolis sped past as they took off, heading towards the massive shadow that remained the one solid looking thing in the centre of the blurring world. It became even more solid as they got closer, colours leaking into the shape, massive and metallic. Sonic thought he heard Lexi gasp, slowing so she didn't choke on a bug or something. Still, friction sparked under his feet as he slid to a halt…and almost mowed down the rest of the startled Loonatics team like an avalanche through the Swiss Alps.

"Hey guys."

He looked up.

"Oh."

The whirring of the colossus's neck rumbled high over head like the subway to Heaven, sunlight flashing blinding and beautiful as it's head swivelled down to look at the assembled anthromorph. Aware of Lexi's eyes on him Sonic raised a tingling but jovial hand.

"Hello Ivo."

--

"Hey, now it's a party, huh?"

Knuckles smiled genuinely through the grime, shaking gravel out of his dreadlocks, towel draped over his shoulders. He'd rather have had time to properly groom himself if he was to stand in the presence of royalty, but in all honesty that was the bureaucratic side of guardianship and the day Sally Acorn gave a damn about protocol was the day Rouge the bat didn't wear something skin-tight. The squirrel smiled, sky blue jacket waving in the wind against Tail's hug.

"Looks like you've been having fun."

Knuckles returned her smile, checking the rest: Amy, the Chaotix, the Acorn Freedom Fighters, Shortfuse and Techno the canary…Rouge…

"Where's Shadow? Not that I miss the guy but we could use the fire power."

/_/Hey./_/ Shortfuse supplied through his voice filter. /_/I got all your fire power right here./_/ The gauntlets rattled as the cyber squirrel pumped a fist at the air.

"And with just about half the ego, you'll actually be able to see what your shooting at."

Knuckles smirked, reviewing the rest of the troops.

"Mighty."

"Knux."

The two old friends shook hands. The armadillo glanced at Rev, trying to stay behind Knuckles and very aware of how formal/camp his uniform must look in the face of how casual everyone else was dressed. Even more so as every one followed the gaze. Knuckle's clapped an arm around his shoulder.

"Everybody, this is Rev Runner. Our new secret weapon."

Rouge, crouched on the wing of the Freedom Fighter's jet, smiling. Friendly, maybe, but then bat girl _always_ smiled, and _always_ wore _that _shade of lip stick when she did it, so God only knew…

"Can our new secret weapon talk?"

"Yeah." Mighty charmed in. "And what else can he do?"

Knuckle's felt the gravitational pull of that Adam's apple as Rev tried not to gulp.

"Uh, well, hi everybody, I'm Rev, Rev Runner, but, uh, Knuckles already told you that part, and I guess I'll be filling in for Sonic while he's gone, um, I mean away, just call me Rev and, uh, have a nice day."

Vector ignored Charmy's fascinated stare at having discovered something that talked more than he did.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go with speedster."

Techno looked up from her laptop, currently hacked into a GUN observation satellite angling in on the Egg Carrier, now hovering over the city centre a good few miles away from their current location.

"We may need one."

Amy pouted.

"What happened to Sonic?"

The Roadrunner and Echidna tried to keep their faces blank as they traded looks, which didn't do much for trying to hide something. Not that they actually _knew_ what had happened to Sonic.

"He's busy somewhere else right now."

_We guess. Nothing feels right. Or rather, nothing feels right here. If true blue wound up in Rev's dimension then there's probably someone over there who can work out how to get him back. Tail's can definitely work on another of those engine things once this entire Egg Carrier thing is over. But the Carrier dosen't feel right. Robotnik's definitely out of the picture, probably bothering Sonic and Rev's friends back home. So who's running the show now? How'd they get that wreck airborne again? And what kind of weird ass robot designs do they have waiting for round two?_

Lot to think about, not much time.

Mighty cracked his knuckles, limbering up.

"So what can we do while he's…busy?"

"You, Bunny and Shorty are our heavy hitters. They can fly and you can't, so follow Bunny's lead." He looked over his shoulder. "If that's okay with you."

"No problem. Getting a little ahead of ourselves with the tactics aren't we?" Sally's face was serious, forcing Knuckles to turn and face her fully.

"Your father taking this pretty hard, huh?"

Rotor coughed.

"His majesty's exact words were 'Any means necessary'."

Rouge winced, flexing inward slightly in her crouch on the plane wing just above Antoine's head.

"Chances are the latest president came to the same conclusion. Only _definite _nuclear option instead of possible consideration."

Knuckle's chewed his lip.

"So theoretically we're on a time table."

"Which varies from voter to voter. Election year's almost here."

"Ain't it always." Bunny huffed.

Knuckles shook his head. This was why he _chose_ to be indigenous.

"So we're on a time table."

There was a thunder storm rumble as fast as a lightning bolt as he slapped his hands together, smirking. The smirk was mostly to avoid freaking out Rev. It didn't seen to be working.

"I love a challenge. Okay, gather in everybody. Shorty, you are gonna _love_ this one…"

--

Zadavia just managed to dodge the aftermath of the explosion as it vaporized the teleporter platform. Something that looked like a distressingly large metal foot finished the job.

Scanners blossomed into static all around the alien princess as she rose, cloak and hair falling back into place even as they waved lightly in the thermal aftermath, charged with the tachyon equivalent of static electricity. The teleporter was an experimental gift from her to Tech, a theoretically safe small scale version of the ones developed centuries for the royal cargo trains. It had been intended to cut crisis response time in half, once she'd finished working out the kinks. Regenerative abilities aside Tech could be a little…overzealous, a big green child on Christmas Eve with new technology. The experimental copy she'd stored in her underwater fortress had been intended for emergency conferences instead of catching six individuals in the middle of a firestorm but the situation on her monitors had been too intense not to. Eye Beams and Brain Blasts against sheer mass, bearing down with all the inevitability of a clock attached to a room smeared wall to wall with plastique. The results of the battle looked just as bad. Ragged figures, smoke, some flame.

And a startled blue and grey figure the only thing standing upright in the mess, a gloved hand still raised and smoking like a freshly fired cannon.

"Uh…hi?"

Zadavia nodded, medical robots fluttering around her to deal with the shell shocked Loonatics.

"Greetings. Please do not take offence, but wipe your feet."

--

It was freezing up here, the rumbling engines of the Carrier creating far too much resistance for simple gliding, but Knuckles still intensely leant into the wind, letting his dreadlocks bob savagely in the gale before deciding to mutiny and tangle into each other. His trailed along the _waaaaaay_ too long armoured deck of the target to the swarm of un manned A.I fighter jets trailing behind the Tornado, Rev and Amy faint red and pink blurs clinging to the wings. He started the countdown in his head, satisfied when the Tornado dived out of sight, beginning the long trail down and underneath the Carrier's belly. The Freedom Fighters jet, upgraded with the best tech the kingdom of Acorn royal air force could provide, would back it up. Tails would drop his team off by blasting up through one of the bomb bay doors and heading for where he vaguely remembered the control tower to be. Antoine and Rotor would then brake off, providing cover fire for the contingent of jets attacking the starboard bow. After Knuckles team made their own way down through the ship, the rest of the jets would attack the prow. Rouge and the Chaotix, waiting in an escorted personnel carrier, would then be dropped down after them to cover the entrance and hold off any attacks until their exit. Hitting the thing from all sides until they could shut it down manually from inside...not the best plan, but certainly their best shot. Maybe whatever was going on with Rev would actually come in handy this time around. Unpleasant thought, but he almost wished Shadow was here: Chaos Control sounded a lot more reliable than holding out until an escape. Might as well check the odds before game time.

He tapped his ear piece.

"Techno? Any luck hacking the defences on this monster? Some security cam footage even?"

Clicking keyboard in the background, a subtle sound that could only be a lower lip being bitten. Neat trick with a beak.

"_Sorry, Knux, this things got me running around in circles half blind. If not for the sheer number of fire walls in here I'd have been hacked before I even booted up. I recognize the basis for these codes, but where ever your friend came from they've gotta have some pretty neat encryption tech. I can give you superimposed security blue prints of this thing from it's first outing, but it could be hours before I can find anything useful."_

Figured.

/_No rush sweet heart._/

Shortfuse's London twang sounded far more gentle than usual. Knuckles couldn't help but smile, dangling from Bunny's arms. He looked to his left, squinting through biting wind and flailing dreadlocks at Mighty, who nodded, gripping the cyber squirrel's gauntlets.

"Okay people, it's clobbering time!"

He didn't even bother to check if Mighty had assumed free fall position. He knew the armadillo well enough to know anything _but_ his bones would break when he hit the ground. He angled his body to increase speed, spreading his dreadlocks to catch air for a controlled decent and more reaction time. One second behind Mighty was all he needed. Behind him a barrage of arm mounted laser fire shredded a row of rusted, swivelling turrets. Then Mighty struck, a spinning ball of armoured red vanishing in the blaze. The shockwave fractured the rusted deck, throwing up chunks of grey mould, and was still vibrating when Knuckles landed. Hatches dotted across the deck sprang open, the echidna reacting instantly. He snatched up a still smocking barb torn loose from the fractured turret supports and crammed it into the opening jagged maw. Something writhed deep inside, a robot scorpion tail jabbing at the air as far as it could extend from the gap. A quick slice at an approaching spider was all he had time for before lunging into the still smoking wreckage left in Mighty's wake. He almost missed the armadillo completely, tangled in thin strands of cable and face down in something wet it was probably better not to think about too much. The hallway they'd busted into was bathed in a throbbing burgundy light, odd washed out blue and purple shadows where there wasn't yellow circuitry and grey bulges. He grabbed one of the cables and dangled there next to his friend like the lone offspring of the world's oddest pair of novelty dice.

"You okay, Mighty?"

A muffled reply and a thumbs up. Both arms pushed against the lump until a greasy head exploded up and out into the stale smell of the rusted hulk mixed with the mountain fresh pressurized oxygen of high altitude. Mighty spat something luminous into the shadows, squinting in the bad lighting.

"Personally, I'd have fired the decorator. Looks like queer eye for the bad guy in here."

Shortfuse death dived in behind them, Bunny's whooping following him as she killed her thrusters and re-housed her rapidly cooling arm cannon.

"You fellas sure know how to show a gal a good time!"

"Don't get too comfortable." Knuckles warned as they began the long run to the rendezvous. "Let's just make sure the belly of the beast isn't too crowded." He tried the ear piece again.

"Techno? You and Sally got anything?"

_Because if you don't and this backfires, we're looking at a five digit body count for this city alone._

The ear piece crackled to the canary's triumph.

"_Weapon signatures boss man! Exterior's, assuming they're all where they're supposed to be, are running hot. Interior's an ice box apart from you guys."_

"_Looks like all you'll have to worry about are the robots." _Sally supplied. They took a left.

"Comforting. How are we holding up outside?"

"_Jets are doing okay considering." _Knuckles could tell the princess didn't like taking a back seat and coordinating with Techno, but the Acorn throne had spent too long brooding over the apparent demise of it's family. Better safe than potentially responsible for wiping out a generation. Another left. _"Assuming this thing's as good a shot as Robotnik, then both teams should last about forty five minutes. Chaotix away in three…two…"_

A bat like shadow darted across the sun, blotting it from a single remaining port hole and the deck started ringing with the sounds of steel and combat. Knuckles felt a vibration running through the metal an experienced miner knew in his soul.

"Tails, Rev and Amy are in position. Keep the lines open and we'll buzz you if anything goes wrong."

_/Too bloody likely./_/ Shortfuse grunted.

They took corners with more speed, leapt staircases and even ducked through walls where armour plating had broken away, each trying to hold onto the memories of drummed in schematics the military had mysteriously gotten their hands, working their way deeper and deeper into the ruined, saltwater smelling ruins of the ship. No enemies came, witch either meant the team outside was doing a hell of a job or something was letting them in, and that never meant anything good. Evil world conquers did not go about evilly conquering the world by helpfully letting valiantly defiant heroes in to valiantly defy them heroically.

They usually just let them in to valiantly die.

The lights up ahead flickered, sparked, went out, ugly shadows flickering on the far wall.

"No grandstanding, Shorty. I've fought these things. We need an effective strategy."

_/Bloody hell!/_

Mighty almost ran over Shortfuse as he skidded to a halt.

_/All me systems just went nuttier than all the family sores!/_

"Think I can guess why."

Knuckles moved to cover Bunny, although she didn't seem to have any problems…maybe something to do with being bio powered. Tails, Amy and Rev shot around the corner, grinding to a halt in front of them.

"Robots!" Tails exclaimed.

"No, really?" Mighty grunted, hefting a support beam out of the wall and readying it like a club.

"Okay, Amy, you're with these three. Rev, you and me are backing up Tail's to his objective. Shorty, you doing okay?"

_/Radar and targeting systems 'r down, but internal power supplies coping. Still packing enough heat to blitz London all over again. Just gonna have to do it the old fashioned way./_

Metallic fists clenched.

_/I love the old fashioned way./_

"No grandstanding, Shorty. I've fought these things. We need an effective strategy."

_/Don't know what yer talking about, mate. I'm a model of efficiency, I am./_

Silver alloy flashed as the cyber squirrel spun, gauntlets blazing even after the entire first wave had practically melted.

_/You want some?! C'mon then! Come 'n get it!/_

Knuckles smirked (He liked the old fashioned way too) and took off after Tails and Rev.

"Ready?"

"Targets been fed into my GPS, I'm locked and loaded and we're not picking anything up ahead, Tails has got this virus whipped up and things are going _crazy_ outside, so we can really rock and roll now, grab on and let's get on with it!"

Gauntlets grasped gloves and they took off at the speed of the average motor bike, fox and echidna trailing in the Road Runner's slipstream. Corridors blurred together like river water, the occasional robotic alligator or wasp appearing then disappearing in the distorted blur of high speed. There was still the feeling of time passing, Rev had to manoeuvre through corridors and killer robots on a ship the size of a small island. Just as the G-forces and Knuckle's stomach began to tug at each other, the massive chamber of the control tower materialized around them.

"Nice trip."

Tails shook his head from side to side.

"Almost as smooth as Sonic."

"If you live with turbulence everyday." Knuckles grumbled. Which, being a flyer, the kid probably did…

A crackling arc of energy burst from the ledge above them, earthing itself in the terminal and floor inches from Tails' foot. Something crackling with that same ugly energy leapt to the lower level, crashing down onto the floor with enough weight to rumble the metal under the groups feet. Knuckles squinted into the fading flicker of the maelstrom as darkness rushed back to reclaim it's own.

"Shadow?"

"Once upon a time."

The hedgehog, what _looked_ like the hedgehog, lumbered from the darkness.

"That is as fitting a name for IT as any."

'IT' seemed really appropriate. At first Knuckles thought the hedgehog had just done something to his spines, but the red streaks in his fur were simply suctioned to metal green armour plating, yellow conductive rods spiking up and out on each section. The entire thing squatted on Shadow's arms, shoulders, to the crown of his head, like a black and green armoured snake. The helmet like section curved menacingly downward just above where his eyes met, a red visor slashed over them. The pupils were visible under there, far too large and ringed with veins, the ruby red darker under the blood red plexiglass. The chest and arm muscles bulged horrifically, completing the warped caricature sketch the ultimate life form had become.

Knuckles took a step forward.

"I really hope IT has insurance."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, looked up in to Rev's face.

"He's not right, it's the Bio Tech Parasite, it's messing him up, messing everything up again, just get it off and this'll all be over, _trust me_."

The hedgehog hadn't moved since the Road Runner started talking.

"Not quite the Bio Tech Parasite. IT was created by Mastermind, to be returned to it's home universe to conquer all native technology. IT had only basic sentience until it found this one…his anger for this 'humanity' is buried deeply, but still empowers IT as nothing ever has before."

"That's interesting."

Something blue and propeller shaped shot past Knuckles head and slapped off Shadow's chest fur. Piano wire thin metal cables burst from the four blades and looped around the hedgehog, snapping taunt and delivering enough electricity to stun a charging rhino. The writhing figure in the centre of the light was sent crashing through the rusted metal doors. Knuckles and Rev stared as the fox lowered his throwing arm.

"Just a precaution."

Knuckles decided he was better of just hitting something than trying to make any sense of what just happened.

"Rev, cover Tails and don't touch anything! Not even Shadow, I'll try and get that thing off! Buy you sometime!"

He leapt into the corridor outside and took of running towards the dark figure throwing off still sparking cables. He dodged an energy blast and decided to go for something unconventional, leaping the rest of the way with a kick that connected hard with the hedgehog's jaw. He followed it up with another to the chest, then slammed both fists down onto that spiky metal covered head. He kicked the body over and pinned both arms as best he could, careful to avoid the back spines thrust far too close to his face.

"Y'know, this would actually be pretty satisfying if I was going a couple of rounds with the guy on a mat somewhere, but you had to make him a zombie and take all the fun out of it…"

He put more weight on his right hand, keeping the grasping hands down, reaching out to grab the back of the parasite connected to Shadow's head, pulling. He felt something sticky peel back.

"Sayonara junk heap."

"No."

The room blurred with sudden motion, the cold metal of the floor suddenly against Knuckles back. Metal snapped back into place as the body finished rising into view, tipping into place and swivelling around to face him like a titanic greased machine.

_He flies too. Why not. Not going to church and all, I probably don't deserve a break._

Flipping backwards and onto his feet, energy blasts slamming into where he'd been sprawled, the echidna darted under his opponent, rolling across the floor for maximum speed as further blasts followed and lunging towards the wall. He ignored the cold that stabbed through his gloves and kicked off it, hurling himself towards the patch of levitating darkness with the raised glowing hands

He rammed his claws into the steel, stamping one foot into the overgrown chest to bring the other snapping up into the hauntingly emotionless face. He registered the feeling of biting static under the steel toe caps and brought both back to straighten his body at the same time he shoved all his weight down into his arms, sending both of them flying further away from the doors, bouncing and rolling along the floor amongst the dust and rust as the ship rattled and shook around them. He tugged on his claws, trying to drag the thing off and pray something in Shadow's bizarre make up would keep him alive. A fist the size of his face, the glove straining under the band, crashed into his fist, the added momentum throwing him loose and crashing into the wall, leaving a rough shoulder blades shaped dent in the metal. He absorbed the impact against the floor as best he could, struggling to his knees, bloody mouth snarling with strain.

"IT is stronger than it's predecessor. IT is aware of your virus trying to impede this ship. This shall not save you."

Knuckles first blow missed, but the kick came with the quickness of a revolver, pushing host and parasite back to shudder under even more attacks, forcing it to it's knees. Knuckles rammed it into the wall, grasping both wrists to keep it down and pressed back with no leverage.

"So what are you going to do with all this strength? Keep putting on this Mastermind's little show?"

"No. IT has achieved sentience, and IT shall make IT'S own choices."

"At the cost of his? At the cost of thousands of lives?"

A heavy sneaker rammed into the echidna's gut, doubling him over. Shadow rose.

"IT never said that IT was particularly moral."

The pain of the intense grip around the echidna's neck vanished under the blinding black and white world of full high voltage pumped into his body. A day long second of burning agony flew past, exploding so much as he flattened both doors and a control console hat he almost passed out. He barley registered Tails' hands tight around his shoulders, close and desperately trying to prop him up, his name either echoing or being desperately being called again and again. The shape wavered into view, hovering over him like an impassive vulture.

"But IT is merciful. IT shall study what IT can from your reality before IT examines the next one, and remove all life to spare you all the pain of entropy."

A crackling fist rose…

Later, even after he'd seen the satellite footage Techno downloaded, Knuckle's still wouldn't remember what happened clearly.

Not beyond the Roadrunner's outstretched hand.

The moment of clarity in Shadow's eyes.

The light.

And the slow building noise as the Egg Carrier rocked from the explosion of spontaneously braking in half.

--

Ace winced, peeling back a still smoking cowl before a glowing ember ate all the way through to his face.

"Not gonna lie guys…that coulda gone better."

The only response was the rattle of Tech consuming almost twice his own weight in pain killers. Duck flicked a gnat sized piece of smouldering heel from his foot to the far side of the crystalline room.

"Slow down, ya junkie. You wanna end up in rehab?"

Red rimmed eyes, speckled with re-growing molecules, glared witheringly at the bird.

"I don't know, Duck. Maybe if somebody stopped braking in and stealing all my medicinal alcohol, I wouldn't feel the need."

"Not my fault you're in denial, rummy."

Ace had to admit Tech looked, if not addicted to something, then at least homeless. Everything green had gone the runny grey of rain soaked ash, the darker areas barbecued black and tangled fur tufts jabbing out from practically every area of his costume like shrapnel punching through an envelope. Duck hardly looked any better, a thumb sized hole worn into his left boot and smoke smeared orange looking like it might slosh off him like so much water off his back or just hang there like melted candle wax. A larger hole had been torn in his right sleeve all the way up to his shoulder and his beak looked like it was swaying slightly. Some ancient instinct buried millennium deep within Ace waited eagerly to see if it would fall off.

It didn't, simply sniffing a little. More pills.

"You might wanna go easy there, old pal."

"Actually…" the coyote began. The synthetic purr of the crystalline infirmary doors sliding open gently rolled over the room. Lexi stepped into the room, ragged and tired as the rest of them, headband gone, burnt away in the fight. She raised a soot smeared pink hand in greeting.

"Hey. Sonic's chilling with Zadavia, _away_ from the electronics, and Slam's out like a light in the med bay."

She stifled a giggle.

"Seriously, he's all curled up under the sheets. Could've sworn he was sucking his thumb even."

Duck made a face.

"Hope he dosen't sneeze with that thing up his nose. It'd be like the tower all over again. _Underwater_."

"What happened to the tower anyway?" Ace grimaced, scratching the itch at his thigh left behind by the Guardian Strike sword, perched on the table next to him alongside salve and bandages. "The entire thing just…blew. Whaddaya think Tech, something the gruesome twosome rigged up there to take us out?"

"Uh…" Lexi began.

"Sounds kinda far fetched though." Ace cupped his chin in one hand. "I mean, they were knocking us around like heck, an' then Sonic smacks it with that spin attack of his and _boom_! So why try and get rid of the tower if they've already got enough fire power to take us out right there?"

"Maybe Spiky was in on it."

Duck peeled a ragged strip from his other arm, dangling it idly in front of his eyes, then rubbing it out of existence with his thumb and forefinger.

"I felt like I was cruising on Aqua Dense and that thing didn't even blink no matter how hard we all hit it. The rodent touches it and suddenly, hey, no more robot! And his buddy was at the wheel…"

"He was not in on it!"

Crystals rang long after the shout had faded. Lexi blushed, but maybe not from embarrassment.

"He couldn't be! He was with me! He wasn't! I know it!"

"Oh yeah," Duck rallied, voice still quavering with slight shock ", and you had your eyes on him the whole time…"

"Kind of have to be if you're kissing!"

The entire base could have flooded and three of the bodies in the room would have floated to the surface with convincing wax works faces of shock.

"Yeah, that's right! We kissed! He felt it, I felt for it, and we went for it! The stupid tower just blew by itself, so just _shut up_!"

"Lex…" Ace tried, still feeling like he was missing his entire bone structure "That…that's kinda…sudden and all, ain't it…?"

"Hey!" The bunny girl's ears twitched defensively. "Maybe you _can_ hurry love in this case, huh?"

"Actually that's just a side effect of whatever delicious energy he has floating around in him amplifying your powers and your mental control to compensate, thus affecting your actual personality in the process so it can cope. In this case manifesting as attraction."

Everyone stared at the coyote. The coyote looked back, his gaze far more measured. His hand suddenly dived to the perch beside him, hurling more pills down his still healing throat from a fresh bottle.

"Sorry, emotional detachment. That's kind of my side effect and why I'm popping this many pills. Keeps me grounded. But as a friend, I really have to step in with every one else, Lexi. You're not attracted to Sonic as much as you think you are, and what you _are_ experiencing isn't love. Same deal, your just making the poor guy faster and he's too juiced to notice the difference."

He tried to make what he hoped was a sympathetic face as the bunny girl stared at him as though he'd slapped her after spontaneously murdering her best friend.

"Don't beat yourself up. If I was as much of an extrovert, I'd probably be having a go at him myself. In fact, with the exception of Duck, that's the reason we all like him so much. He makes us feel _fantastic_. Ace is a far more confident leader, Slam's gentler side is coming out, and your more reactive to everything than you already are. My intelligence just now skyrocketed enough to catch up with my powers and make me figure out what my subconscious already knew. Duck's still…Duck. But I think that may have something to do with his Quantum Quack than anything else."

He held up a hand as a trembling Lexi flopped into Ace's gently offered arms.

"Yeah, I know you need a hell of a lot more time to process all of this, but we may not have that kind of time, not if Sonic isn't just blowing up electronics now. We may be looking at the approaching end of two universes."

Ace rocked the limp girl in his arms gently, received an encouraging squeeze of the hand and a nod, not actual eye contact but a nod, and looked up at the coyote.

"Okay…go for it."

Tech coughed, uncertain how to begin.

"Speedsters vibrate. Constantly. Did you know that? It's how some of them, like Sonic, can approach high speeds without charbroiling themselves from the friction or prematurely ageing. The vibrations of their accelerated metabolisms generate a protective aura of vibrations that defends them from any ill effects. Give a natural born speedster like Sonic a durable material like the stuff in his shoes and he can really push himself. That's why Rev, Sonic, and others like them are the best method of dimensional travel. It's almost better than time travel by mass replacement. You know, get rid of some one your exact size and weight in the Middle Ages and take their place in _thei_r time while they fill _yours _in your own. Ever hear of the Allen theory?"

He pressed on regardless of the creased brows and blank stares.

"The music of the spheres? It's not just stars singing, it's how everything exists. How a universe holds together. And everything in that universe has a steadily vibrating mass tuned to that reality. Dimensions are separated from each other by their particular vibrations. The Allen theory is sort of an advanced version of one of the primary ways to phase through something. If an object can vibrate it's molecules fast enough it can achieve a state of intangibility and can pass through solid objects .The Allen theory…"

Tech bit his lower lip (And grimaced because it wasn't a very smart thing to do with fangs), trying to think of a way to explain it.

"It's like time travel only faster and in the right direction. The idea is the faster you vibrate…stop giggling, Duck…the faster you vibrate, the more intangible you become. If you accelerate fast enough you can phase out of reality and even travel to another one by reaching the same frequency as it's own vibrations. If two objects bake loose from their home dimensions at the same time, they can fill the gap each leaves behind."

He found one and tried it out, snatching up the empty pill jar with his other hand and then shaking them both vigorously.

"I'm, uh…trying to shake these in different directions, but I can't do it at the same time. Hold on…"

He rattled the right hand jar.

"Imagine this is Sonic. Safe and snug in his own universe's atomic structure, a single particle vibrating in amongst this chaos energy stuff."

Now the left.

"And this is Rev on your average day, fresh off a mission and poking around in my lab like he's not supposed to right here in our universe."

The right hand one started rattling again, faster.

"And now imagine this is Sonic inside this energy converting device, being supercharged with all that chaos energy and vibrating faster and faster."

The left again, also faster.

"And here's Rev, going at maximum speed and tripping into this dimensional portal Mastermind just happens to have lying around, vibrating faster and faster."

He held up both jars.

"Each speedster achieves a state of high vibration at roughly the same time, and phase out of their respective universes, taking their native energies and vibrations with them."

He crossed both hands, the jars now on opposing sides.

"Rev gets catapulted across space and time and winds up in around the…20th to 23rd century of Sonic's world, and our hedgehog friend pops out in the present day in ours. Both are still carrying the energy of the chaos emeralds and the aftermath of the comet, tied into their vibrational structures. Under normal circumstances, all they'd usually have to do is wait until their vibrations went back to shaking out of sync with whichever universe they ended up in, and they'd be sapped back across limbo to their respective homes like rubber bands after being plucked. But that's where the energy comes in."

He placed both jars on the opposing ends of the table, dropping a ring of five pills around the former left jar.

"Sonic's energy is transferring out of him and replacing the comet energy in us, amplifying our powers. Likewise we're feeding Sonic our own energy, only at five times the dose. We're actually speeding him up, making his vibrations last longer and in fact, overtime, accelerating them. That's why you guys…getting intimate…blew out the tower. You generated a huge amount of energy at that level of contact. Same with the Troll Bot."

He prodded the former right hand jar, pushing it slowly along the edge of the table.

"Poor old Rev on the other hand, dosen't have anywhere near that amount of energy to counter his own…but can't return home because his dimensional parking space is already taken. His vibrations can't respond any other way than by slowing down, further phasing him into where he already is, all that unstable energy churning away inside him and leaking out disproportionately from behind his vibrating mass. That's probably why electronics are going up in flames around both of them; the electrical energy of each universe is too tied in to it's own fundamental energy to accept anything that totally different. There's no chaos energy in our universe but we're siphoning off Sonic and replacing it with out native comet energy. Rev's energy dosen't have anywhere to go or any kind of loop to replace it, so the effects are worse."

He gestured, wrapping up.

"So the longer Sonic spends in this reality, the faster he gets. Eventually he reaches interdimensional escape velocity…"

Tech licked the roof of his mouth.

"…and blasts this reality out of existence in the aftermath of interdimensional terminal velocity."

He shrugged at the horrified stares.

"Hey, in terms of scale we're getting off lucky. The longer Rev stays in Sonic's reality, the more he slows down. Eventually he finally vibrates to a complete halt and unleashes the full force of his caged comet energy across that contained time and space. Ever seen matter and anti matter meet? Of course you haven't, but my advice? Wear sunglasses."


End file.
